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Introduced Version Senate Bill 246 History

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Key: Green = existing Code. Red = new code to be enacted

WEST virginia Legislature

2017 regular session

Introduced

Senate Bill 246

By Senators Boso, Plymale, Cline and Rucker

[Introduced February 10, 2017; referred
to the Committee on the Judiciary
]

A BILL to amend and reenact §22-11-7b and §22-11-11 of the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, all relating to the implementation of water quality standards for the protection of drinking water in permits; and providing draft permits to applicants prior to public notice.

Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:


That §22-11-7b and §22-11-11 of the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, be amended and reenacted, all to read as follows:

ARTICLE 11. Water pollution control act.

§22-11-7b. Water quality standards; implementation of antidegradation procedures; procedure to determine compliance with the biologic component of the narrative water quality standard.


(a) All authority to promulgate rules and implement water quality standards is vested in the Secretary of the Department of Environmental Protection.

(b) All meetings with the secretary or any employee of the department and any interested party which are convened for the purpose of making a decision or deliberating toward a decision as to the form and substance of the rule governing water quality standards or variances thereto shall be held in accordance with the provisions of article nine-a, chapter six of this code. When the secretary is considering the form and substance of the rules governing water quality standards, the following are not meetings pursuant to article nine-a, chapter six of this code: (i) Consultations between the department's employees or its consultants, contractors or agents; (ii) consultations with other state or federal agencies and the department's employees or its consultants, contractors or agents; or (iii) consultations between the secretary, the department's employees or its consultants, contractors or agents with any interested party for the purpose of collecting facts and explaining state and federal requirements relating to a site specific change or variance.

(c) In order to carry out the purposes of this chapter, the secretary shall promulgate legislative rules in accordance with the provisions of article three, chapter twenty-nine-a of this code setting standards of water quality applicable to both the surface waters and ground waters of this state. Standards of quality with respect to surface waters shall protect the public health and welfare, wildlife, fish and aquatic life and the present and prospective future uses of the water for domestic, agricultural, industrial, recreational, scenic and other legitimate beneficial uses thereof. The water quality standards of the secretary may not specify the design of equipment, type of construction or particular method which a person shall use to reduce the discharge of a pollutant. For implementing human health criteria for the protection of drinking water, permit limits shall be calculated using the harmonic mean flow, and the secretary may determine the point of compliance for a permittee’s discharge at the downstream boundary of a  mixing zone determined without regard to limitations on spatial area or overlapping discharges that extends to, but not beyond, a point one-half mile upstream of a public water supply, unless the public water supply agrees in writing to an extension of the mixing zone to a point no less than five hundred yards upstream of its intake. The secretary may propose emergency revisions to its water quality standards to implement the design flows and mixing zone requirements for implementation of human health criteria for the protection of drinking water.

(d) The secretary shall establish the antidegradation implementation procedures as required by 40 C. F. R. 131.12(a) which apply to regulated activities that have the potential to affect water quality. The secretary shall propose for legislative approval, pursuant to article three, chapter twenty-nine-a of the code, legislative rules to establish implementation procedures which include specifics of the review depending upon the existing uses of the water body segment that would be affected, the level of protection or "tier" assigned to the applicable water body segment, the nature of the activity and the extent to which existing water quality would be degraded. Any final classification determination of a water as a Tier 2.5 water (Water of Special Concern) does not become effective until that determination is approved by the Legislature through the legislative rule-making process as provided in article three, chapter twenty-nine-a of the code.

(e) All remining variances shall be applied for and considered by the secretary and any variance granted shall be consistent with 33 U. S. C. Section 1311(p) of the Federal Water Control Act. At a minimum, when considering an application for a remining variance the secretary shall consider the data and information submitted by the applicant for the variance; and comments received at a public comment period and public hearing. The secretary may not grant a variance without requiring the applicant to improve the instream water quality as much as is reasonably possible by applying best available technology economically achievable using best professional judgment. Any such requirement will be included as a permit condition. The secretary may not grant a variance without a demonstration by the applicant that the coal remining operation will result in the potential for improved instream water quality as a result of the remining operation. The secretary may not grant a variance where he or she determines that degradation of the instream water quality will result from the remining operation.

(f) The secretary shall propose rules measuring compliance with the biologic component of West Virginia's narrative water quality standard requires evaluation of the holistic health of the aquatic ecosystem and a determination that the stream: (i) Supports a balanced aquatic community that is diverse in species composition; (ii) contains appropriate trophic levels of fish, in streams that have flows sufficient to support fish populations; and (iii) the aquatic community is composed of benthic invertebrate assemblages sufficient to perform the biological functions necessary to support fish communities within the assessed reach, or, if the assessed reach has insufficient flows to support a fish community, in those downstream reaches where fish are present. The secretary shall propose rules for legislative approval in accordance with the provisions of article three, chapter twenty-nine-a of this code that implement the provisions of this subsection. Rules promulgated pursuant to this subsection may not establish measurements for biologic components of West Virginia's narrative water quality standards that would establish standards less protective than requirements that exist at the time of enactment of the amendments to this subsection by the Legislature during the 2012 regular session.

§22-11-11. Procedure concerning permits required under article; transfer of permits; prior permits.


(a) The chief or his or her duly authorized representatives shall conduct such investigation as is deemed necessary and proper in order to determine whether any such application should be granted or denied. In making such investigation and determination as to any application pertaining solely to sewage, the chief shall consult with the director of the office of environmental health services of the state bureau of public health, and in making such investigation and determination as to any application pertaining to any activity specified in subdivision (7), subsection (b), section eight of this article, the chief shall consult with the director of the state geological and economic survey and the chief of the office of oil and gas of the division, and all such persons shall cooperate with the chief and assist him or her in carrying out the duties and responsibilities imposed upon him or her under the provisions of this article and the rules of the director and board; such cooperation shall include, but not be limited to, a written recommendation approving or disapproving the granting of the permit and the reason or reasons for such recommendation, which recommendation and the reason or reasons therefor shall be submitted to the chief within the specified time period prescribed by rules of the director.

(b) The division's permit shall be issued upon such reasonable terms and conditions as the chief may direct if (1) the application, together with all supporting information and data and other evidence, establishes that any and all discharges or releases, escapes, deposits and disposition of treated or untreated sewage, industrial wastes or other wastes, or the effluent therefrom, resulting from the activity or activities for which the application for a permit was made will not cause pollution of the waters of this state or violate any effluent limitations or any rules of the board or director: Provided, That the chief may issue a permit whenever in his or her judgment the water quality standards of the state may be best protected by the institution of a program of phased pollution abatement which under the terms of the permit may temporarily allow a limited degree of pollution of the waters of the state; and (2) in cases wherein it is required, such applicant shall include the name and address of the responsible agent as set forth in subsection (e), section six, article six of this chapter.

(c) Each permit issued under this article shall have a fixed term not to exceed five years: Provided, That when the applicant, in accordance with agency rules, has made a timely and complete application for permit reissuance, the permit term may be extended by the chief, at his or her discretion. An extension may be granted for a period not to exceed twelve months beyond its expiration date. Successive extensions may be granted for periods not to exceed twelve months if the chief determines additional time is necessary in order to process the application for permit reissuance. Upon expiration of a permit, a new permit may be issued by the chief upon condition that the discharges or releases, escapes, deposits and disposition thereunder meet or will meet all applicable state and federal water quality standards, effluent limitations and all other requirements of this article.

(d) An application for a permit incident to remedial action in accordance with the provisions of section sixteen of this article shall be processed and decided as any other application for a permit required under the provisions of section eight of this article.

(e) A complete application for any permit shall be acted upon by the chief, and the division's permit delivered or mailed, or a copy of any order of the chief denying any such application delivered or mailed to the applicant by the chief, within a reasonable time period as prescribed by rules of the director: Provided, That for permits to be  issued in accordance with the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System, the secretary shall ensure that the draft permit and fact sheet are available to the applicant for review at least thirty days before any public notice and comment period and, if requested by the applicant, the secretary shall meet and confer with the applicant regarding the draft permit and fact sheet prior to public notice.

(f) When it is established that an application for a permit should be denied, the chief shall make and enter an order to that effect, which order shall specify the reasons for such denial, and shall cause a copy of such order to be served on the applicant by registered or certified mail. The chief shall also cause a notice to be served with a copy of such order, which notice shall advise the applicant of the right to appeal to the board by filing a notice of appeal on the form prescribed by the board for such purpose, with the board, in accordance with the provisions of, and within the time specified in, section seven, article one, chapter twenty-two-b of this code. However, an applicant may alter the plans and specifications for the proposed activity and submit a new application for any such permit, in which event the procedure hereinbefore outlined with respect to an original application shall apply.

(g) A permit is transferable to another person upon proper notification to the chief and in accordance with applicable rules. Such transfer does not become effective until it is reflected in the records of the office of water resources.

(h) All permits for the discharge of sewage, industrial wastes or other wastes into any waters of the state issued by the water resources board prior to July one, one thousand nine hundred sixty-four, and all permits heretofore issued under the provisions of former article five-a, chapter twenty of this code, and which have not been heretofore revoked, are subject to review, revocation, suspension, modification and reissuance in accordance with the terms and conditions of this article and the rules promulgated thereunder. Any order of revocation, suspension or modification made and entered pursuant to this subsection shall be upon at least twenty days' notice and shall specify the reasons for such revocation, suspension or modification and the chief shall cause a copy of such order, together with a copy of a notice of the right to appeal to the board as provided for in section twelve of this article, to be served upon the permit holder as specified in said section twelve.

(i)  The secretary may not require a permit that is issued, in whole or in part, under the auspices of the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System to be modified in order to include or amend a plan that is required by state law but is not required by the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System. Such plans, which include, but are not limited to, groundwater protection plans, storm water pollution prevention plans and spill prevention and response plans, remain enforceable under their respective authorizing statutes, but amendments to such plans are not cause for modification of a permit.

 

 

NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to create a more effective permit process that encourages coordination between applicants and the state, that specifies how mixing zones are determined for water quality criteria that are developed for protection of public water supplies, and clarifies that amendment of certain plans required of permittees are not cause for modifying a permit.

 

Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken from a heading or the present law and underscoring indicates new language that would be added.

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