§1252 Comprehensive Programs for Water Pollution Control

Summary

The Administrator must create broad programs to stop, cut, or remove pollution in rivers, coastal and underground waters and to make those waters cleaner and safer. The Administrator must study conditions, work with other federal agencies, state and interstate water agencies, towns, and industries, and may do joint investigations of water and pollutant discharges. Plans must consider uses like fish and wildlife, recreation, and water for public, farm, and industrial needs. When federal agencies (like the Corps of Engineers or the Bureau of Reclamation) plan reservoirs, they must consider adding storage to help control streamflow. That storage cannot replace proper pollution treatment at the source. The Corps, Bureau, or other federal agencies decide the need and value of storage for non-water-quality goals (for example navigation or recreation). The Administrator decides the need, value, and effects when storage is for water quality and must state those views to Congress on any reservoir proposal. Project benefits and costs must be weighed and shared fairly. If benefits are national, the costs for those storage features are nonreimbursable. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission may not approve hydroelectric storage for water quality unless the Administrator recommends it, and the storage cannot exceed a share based on drainage areas. At a governor’s request, the Administrator may fund up to 50 percent of a basin planning agency’s admin costs for up to three years beginning after October 18, 1972, if the agency fairly represents local interests and can make a basin pollution control plan. That plan must follow existing water standards and limits, recommend cost-effective treatment works and financing, and coordinate with related federal and state plans. Basin: rivers, streams, coastal waters, estuaries, bays, lakes, and the lands they drain.