I
118THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION H. R. 1152
To amend the Federal Water Pollution Control Act to make changes with
respect to water quality certification, and for other purposes.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
FEBRUARY24, 2023
Mr. R
OUZER(for himself and Mr. GRAVESof Louisiana) introduced the fol-
lowing bill; which was referred to the Committee on Transportation and
Infrastructure
A BILL
To amend the Federal Water Pollution Control Act to make
changes with respect to water quality certification, and
for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Water Quality Certifi-4
cation and Energy Project Improvement Act of 2023’’. 5
SEC. 2. CERTIFICATION. 6
Section 401 of the Federal Water Pollution Control 7
Act (33 U.S.C. 1341) is amended— 8
(1) in subsection (a)— 9
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(A) in paragraph (1)— 1
(i) in the first sentence, by striking 2
‘‘may result’’ and inserting ‘‘may directly 3
result’’; 4
(ii) in the second sentence, by striking 5
‘‘activity’’ and inserting ‘‘discharge’’; 6
(iii) in the third sentence, by striking 7
‘‘applications’’ each place it appears and 8
inserting ‘‘requests’’; 9
(iv) in the fifth sentence, by striking 10
‘‘act on’’ and inserting ‘‘grant or deny’’; 11
and 12
(v) by inserting after the fourth sen-13
tence the following: ‘‘Not later than 30 14
days after the date of enactment of the 15
Water Quality Certification and Energy 16
Project Improvement Act of 2023, each 17
State and interstate agency that has au-18
thority to give such a certification, and the 19
Administrator, shall publish requirements 20
for certification to demonstrate to such 21
State, such interstate agency, or the Ad-22
ministrator, as the case may be, compli-23
ance with the applicable provisions of sec-24
tions 301, 302, 303, 306, and 307. A deci-25
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sion to grant or deny a request for certifi-1
cation shall be based only on the applicable 2
provisions of sections 301, 302, 303, 306, 3
and 307, and the grounds for the decision 4
shall be set forth in writing and provided 5
to the applicant. Not later than 90 days 6
after receipt of a request for certification, 7
the State, interstate agency, or Adminis-8
trator, as the case may be, shall identify in 9
writing all specific additional materials or 10
information that are necessary to grant or 11
deny the request.’’; 12
(B) in paragraph (2)— 13
(i) in the second sentence, by striking 14
‘‘notice of application for such Federal li-15
cense or permit’’ and inserting ‘‘receipt of 16
a notice under the preceding sentence’’; 17
(ii) in the third sentence, by striking 18
‘‘any water quality requirement’’ and in-19
serting ‘‘any applicable provision of section 20
301, 302, 303, 306, or 307’’; 21
(iii) in the fifth sentence, by striking 22
‘‘insure compliance with applicable water 23
quality requirements.’’ and inserting ‘‘en-24
sure compliance with the applicable provi-25
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sions of sections 301, 302, 303, 306, and 1
307.’’; 2
(iv) in the final sentence, by striking 3
‘‘insure’’ and inserting ‘‘ensure’’; and 4
(v) by striking the first sentence and 5
inserting ‘‘On receipt of a request for cer-6
tification, the certifying State or interstate 7
agency, as applicable, shall immediately 8
notify the Administrator of the request.’’; 9
(C) in paragraph (3), in the second sen-10
tence, by striking ‘‘section’’ and inserting ‘‘any 11
applicable provision of section’’; 12
(D) in paragraph (4)— 13
(i) in the first sentence, by striking 14
‘‘applicable effluent limitations or other 15
limitations or other applicable water qual-16
ity requirements will not be violated’’ and 17
inserting ‘‘no applicable provision of sec-18
tion 301, 302, 303, 306, or 307 will be vio-19
lated’’; 20
(ii) in the second sentence, by striking 21
‘‘will violate applicable effluent limitations 22
or other limitations or other water quality 23
requirements’’ and inserting ‘‘will directly 24
result in a discharge that violates an appli-25
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cable provision of section 301, 302, 303, 1
306, or 307,’’; and 2
(iii) in the third sentence, by striking 3
‘‘such facility or activity will not violate the 4
applicable provisions’’ and inserting ‘‘oper-5
ation of such facility or activity will not di-6
rectly result in a discharge that violates 7
any applicable provision’’; and 8
(E) in paragraph (5), by striking ‘‘the ap-9
plicable provisions’’ and inserting ‘‘any applica-10
ble provision’’; 11
(2) in subsection (d), by striking ‘‘any applica-12
ble effluent limitations and other limitations, under 13
section 301 or 302 of this Act, standard of perform-14
ance under section 306 of this Act, or prohibition, 15
effluent standard, or pretreatment standard under 16
section 307 of this Act, and with any other appro-17
priate requirement of State law set forth in such 18
certification, and’’ and inserting ‘‘the applicable pro-19
visions of sections 301, 302, 303, 306, and 307, and 20
any such limitations or requirements’’; and 21
(3) by adding at the end the following: 22
‘‘(e) For purposes of this section, the applicable pro-23
visions of sections 301, 302, 303, 306, and 307 are any 24
applicable effluent limitations and other limitations, under 25
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section 301 or 302, standard of performance under section 1
306, prohibition, effluent standard, or pretreatment stand-2
ard under section 307, and requirement of State law im-3
plementing water quality criteria under section 303 nec-4
essary to support the designated use or uses of the receiv-5
ing navigable waters.’’. 6
Æ
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