§1288 Areawide waste treatment management

Summary

Requires the EPA Administrator to issue rules within 90 days after October 18, 1972, to find areas with big water-quality problems. After those rules are published, each Governor has 60 days to point out such areas in the State, and within 120 days must mark the area’s borders and pick one group (with local elected officials or their picks) to make an areawide waste treatment plan. If an area crosses state lines, the Governors must work together and pick one group within 180 days. If Governors do not act in time, local chief elected officials can agree to set borders and pick the planning group. The State will act as planner for any parts not assigned. The EPA must approve all designations. Each chosen planning group must start a continuous planning process within one year of being named. The first full plan must be certified by the Governor and sent to EPA within two years after planning starts (three years after a first grant if the group was named after 1975 or the State must act as planner). Plans must cover 20-year treatment needs and alternatives, construction priorities and schedules, finance, who will build and run facilities, rules to control discharges and pretreatment, and ways to find and control pollution from farms, mines, construction, saltwater intrusion, leftover wastes, and land disposal that could harm water. Governors must certify plans every year as consistent with basin plans and send them to EPA. When a management agency is named, EPA has 120 days to accept it unless the agency lacks needed powers — for example, to build and run works, get and spend funds and grants, raise revenues, borrow, make sure communities pay their share, refuse wastes from noncomplying places, and accept industrial wastes. After an approved plan and agency are in place, federal construction grants for publicly owned treatment works in the area go only to that agency and only for work that matches the plan. No federal permit may be issued that conflicts with an approved plan. EPA will give grants to the planning agencies to pay reasonable planning costs. If an agency’s first grant was made before October 1, 1977, that agency’s first two years of grants pay 100% of planning costs; after that, and for other agencies, grants may cover up to 75% of costs per year. Authorized appropriations are: $50,000,000 for the year ending June 30, 1973; $100,000,000 for the year ending June 30, 1974; $150,000,000 for each of the years ending June 30, 1975, and September 30 of 1977, 1978, 1979, and 1980; $100,000,000 for each of the years ending September 30, 1981 and 1982; and whatever sums are necessary for fiscal years 1983 through 1990. EPA, the Army Corps of Engineers, and the Fish and Wildlife Service may provide technical help on request. The Army is authorized up to $50,000,000 per year for the fiscal years ending June 30, 1973 and June 30, 1974. The Interior is authorized $6,000,000 to finish the National Wetlands Inventory by December 31, 1981 and to share its information. The Secretary of Agriculture, with EPA agreement, may make 5-to-10-year contracts (until September 31, 1988) with rural landowners to install best management practices that match approved plans. Landowners must follow approved plans, may forfeit payments and refund money with interest if they break the contract, and must meet other contract terms. The Secretary will give technical help and pay up to 50% of costs (more in some cases). The Secretary must give priority to the most harmful sources, may work with local soil districts, and must issue regulations by September 30, 1978. Authorized farm program funding is $200,000,000 for fiscal year 1979; $400,000,000 for 1980; $100,000,000 for 1981; $100,000,000 for 1982; and sums needed for fiscal years 1983 through 1990.