Waste discharge requirements: minimum penalties: exception: publicly owned treatment works.

Plain English Breakdown

The official source material does not provide specific details on how compliance projects are defined or what types of projects would be eligible under this law.

Waste Discharge Penalties: Publicly Owned Treatment Works

This law changes how penalties are handled for publicly owned water treatment plants serving small communities, allowing them to avoid certain penalties by funding projects instead if they have financial difficulties.

What This Bill Does

• Expands the definition of 'publicly owned treatment works serving a small community' to include those serving up to 3,000 residents as a factor in determining financial hardship.
• Allows publicly owned water treatment plants serving populations of 3,000 or fewer people with financial hardships to avoid penalties by funding compliance projects instead.

Who It Names or Affects

• Publicly owned water treatment works serving small communities
• State and regional water quality control boards

Terms To Know

publicly owned treatment works

A water treatment plant that is owned by a city or town, not a private company.

financial hardship

When an organization does not have enough money to pay for something it needs.

Limits and Unknowns

• The bill does not specify how the state board will determine financial hardship.
• It is unclear what types of compliance projects are eligible under this law.

Official Summary Text

SB 1081, as amended, Laird.
Waste discharge requirements: minimum penalties: exception: publicly owned treatment works.
Under existing law, the State Water Resources Control Board and the 9 California regional water quality control boards regulate water quality and prescribe waste discharge requirements in accordance with the Porter-Cologne Water Quality Control Act (act) and the national pollutant discharge elimination system permit program. The act requires mandatory minimum penalties to be assessed for serious violations, as defined, relating to waste discharge requirements, and for certain violations relating to waste discharge requirements and reports whenever there are 4 or more violations in a period of 6 consecutive months, except as provided. The act authorizes the state board or regional board, in lieu of assessing all or a portion of those mandatory minimum penalties against a publicly owned treatment works serving a small community, to instead require the publicly owned treatment works to
spend an equivalent amount towards the completion of a compliance project proposed by the publicly owned treatment works if the state board or regional board make specified findings. The act defines “a publicly owned treatment works serving a small community” for these purposes to mean a publicly owned treatment works serving a population of 20,000 persons or fewer or a rural county, with a financial hardship as determined by the state board after consideration of specified factors.
This bill would
amend that definition to include serving a community of 3,000 residents or less as a factor in the state board’s determination of financial hardship.
expand the authorization for the state board or regional board to require funding of a compliance project in lieu of the otherwise mandatory penalty to apply
to a publicly owned treatment works serving a population of 3,000 persons or fewer, with a financial hardship, determined by the state board, within the 10 years preceding the assessment of the penalty.

Current Bill Text

Download Bill PDF