IB
Union Calendar No. 5
118THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION H. R. 1152
[Report No. 118–10]
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
M
ARCH17, 2023
Additional sponsor: Mr. P
ERRY
M
ARCH17, 2023
Reported from the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure; com-
mitted to the Committee of the Whole House on the State of the Union
and ordered to be printed
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•HR 1152 RH
A BILL
To amend the Federal Water Pollution Control Act to make
changes with respect to water quality certification, and
for other purposes.
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•HR 1152 RH
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
(A) in paragraph (1)— 10
(i) in the first sentence, by striking 11
‘‘may result’’ and inserting ‘‘may directly 12
result’’; 13
(ii) in the second sentence, by striking 14
‘‘activity’’ and inserting ‘‘discharge’’; 15
(iii) in the third sentence, by striking 16
‘‘applications’’ each place it appears and 17
inserting ‘‘requests’’; 18
(iv) in the fifth sentence, by striking 19
‘‘act on’’ and inserting ‘‘grant or deny’’; 20
and 21
(v) by inserting after the fourth sen-22
tence the following: ‘‘Not later than 30 23
days after the date of enactment of the 24
Water Quality Certification and Energy 25
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•HR 1152 RH
Project Improvement Act of 2023, each 1
State and interstate agency that has au-2
thority to give such a certification, and the 3
Administrator, shall publish requirements 4
for certification to demonstrate to such 5
State, such interstate agency, or the Ad-6
ministrator, as the case may be, compli-7
ance with the applicable provisions of sec-8
tions 301, 302, 303, 306, and 307. A deci-9
sion to grant or deny a request for certifi-10
cation shall be based only on the applicable 11
provisions of sections 301, 302, 303, 306, 12
and 307, and the grounds for the decision 13
shall be set forth in writing and provided 14
to the applicant. Not later than 90 days 15
after receipt of a request for certification, 16
the State, interstate agency, or Adminis-17
trator, as the case may be, shall identify in 18
writing all specific additional materials or 19
information that are necessary to grant or 20
deny the request.’’; 21
(B) in paragraph (2)— 22
(i) in the second sentence, by striking 23
‘‘notice of application for such Federal li-24
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•HR 1152 RH
cense or permit’’ and inserting ‘‘receipt of 1
a notice under the preceding sentence’’; 2
(ii) in the third sentence, by striking 3
‘‘any water quality requirement’’ and in-4
serting ‘‘any applicable provision of section 5
301, 302, 303, 306, or 307’’; 6
(iii) in the fifth sentence, by striking 7
‘‘insure compliance with applicable water 8
quality requirements.’’ and inserting ‘‘en-9
sure compliance with the applicable provi-10
sions of sections 301, 302, 303, 306, and 11
307.’’; 12
(iv) in the final sentence, by striking 13
‘‘insure’’ and inserting ‘‘ensure’’; and 14
(v) by striking the first sentence and 15
inserting ‘‘On receipt of a request for cer-16
tification, the certifying State or interstate 17
agency, as applicable, shall immediately 18
notify the Administrator of the request.’’; 19
(C) in paragraph (3), in the second sen-20
tence, by striking ‘‘section’’ and inserting ‘‘any 21
applicable provision of section’’; 22
(D) in paragraph (4)— 23
(i) in the first sentence, by striking 24
‘‘applicable effluent limitations or other 25
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limitations or other applicable water qual-1
ity requirements will not be violated’’ and 2
inserting ‘‘no applicable provision of sec-3
tion 301, 302, 303, 306, or 307 will be vio-4
lated’’; 5
(ii) in the second sentence, by striking 6
‘‘will violate applicable effluent limitations 7
or other limitations or other water quality 8
requirements’’ and inserting ‘‘will directly 9
result in a discharge that violates an appli-10
cable provision of section 301, 302, 303, 11
306, or 307,’’; and 12
(iii) in the third sentence, by striking 13
‘‘such facility or activity will not violate the 14
applicable provisions’’ and inserting ‘‘oper-15
ation of such facility or activity will not di-16
rectly result in a discharge that violates 17
any applicable provision’’; and 18
(E) in paragraph (5), by striking ‘‘the ap-19
plicable provisions’’ and inserting ‘‘any applica-20
ble provision’’; 21
(2) in subsection (d), by striking ‘‘any applica-22
ble effluent limitations and other limitations, under 23
section 301 or 302 of this Act, standard of perform-24
ance under section 306 of this Act, or prohibition, 25
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effluent standard, or pretreatment standard under 1
section 307 of this Act, and with any other appro-2
priate requirement of State law set forth in such 3
certification, and’’ and inserting ‘‘the applicable pro-4
visions of sections 301, 302, 303, 306, and 307, and 5
any such limitations or requirements’’; and 6
(3) by adding at the end the following: 7
‘‘(e) For purposes of this section, the applicable pro-8
visions of sections 301, 302, 303, 306, and 307 are any 9
applicable effluent limitations and other limitations, under 10
section 301 or 302, standard of performance under section 11
306, prohibition, effluent standard, or pretreatment stand-12
ard under section 307, and requirement of State law im-13
plementing water quality criteria under section 303 nec-14
essary to support the designated use or uses of the receiv-15
ing navigable waters.’’. 16
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kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS Union Calendar No.
5
118
TH
CONGRESS
1
ST
S
ESSION
H. R. 1152
[Report No. 118–10]
A BILL
To amend the Federal Water Pollution Control Act
to make changes with respect to water quality
certification, and for other purposes.
M
ARCH
17, 2023
Committed to the Committee of the Whole House on the
State of the Union and ordered to be printed
VerDate Sep 11 2014 22:35 Mar 17, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00008 Fmt 6651 Sfmt 6651 E:\BILLS\H1152.RH H1152
kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS