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LD465 • 2025

An Act to Update Waste Discharge License Fees

An Act to Update Waste Discharge License Fees

Enacted

This bill passed the Legislature and reached final enactment based on the latest official action.

Sponsor
Senator Nicole Grohoski
Last action
2025-05-09
Official status
Signed by the Governor
Effective date
Not listed

Plain English Breakdown

Using official source text because the generated explanation was unavailable or could not be confirmed against the official bill text.

An Act to Update Waste Discharge License Fees

An Act to Update Waste Discharge License Fees Sponsor: Senator Nicole Grohoski Reference committee: Environment and Natural Resources Governor action: Signed by the Governor

What This Bill Does

  • An Act to Update Waste Discharge License Fees Sponsor: Senator Nicole Grohoski Reference committee: Environment and Natural Resources Governor action: Signed by the Governor

Limits and Unknowns

  • This entry is temporarily using official source text because the generated explanation could not be confirmed against the official bill text during the last sync.

Amendments

These notes stay tied to the official amendment files and metadata from the legislature.

Adopted by House & Senate

Plain English: Page 1 - 132LR0165(02) COMMITTEE AMENDMENT 1 L.D.

  • Page 1 - 132LR0165(02) COMMITTEE AMENDMENT 1 L.D.
  • 465 2 Date: (Filing No.
  • S- ) 3ENVIRONMENT AND NATURAL RESOURCES 4 Reproduced and distributed under the direction of the Secretary of the Senate.
  • 5STATE OF MAINE 6SENATE 7132ND LEGISLATURE 8FIRST SPECIAL SESSION 9 COMMITTEE AMENDMENT “ ” to S.P.

Bill History

  1. 2025-05-09 Governor

    Signed by the Governor

  2. 2025-05-06 Senate

    PASSED TO BE ENACTED , in concurrence.

  3. 2025-04-30 House

    PASSED TO BE ENACTED . Sent for concurrence. ORDERED SENT FORTHWITH.

  4. 2025-04-23 Committee

    Reported Out; OTP-AM

  5. 2025-03-05 Committee

    Work Session Held

  6. 2025-03-05 Committee

    Voted; OTP-AM

  7. 2025-02-05 Committee

    Referred to Committee on Environment and Natural Resources.

Official Summary Text

An Act to Update Waste Discharge License Fees
Sponsor:
Senator Nicole Grohoski
Reference committee:
Environment and Natural Resources
Governor action:
Signed by the Governor

Current Bill Text

Read the full stored bill text
Page 1 - 132LR0165(03)
STATE OF MAINE
_____
IN THE YEAR OF OUR LORD
TWO THOUSAND TWENTY-FIVE
_____
S.P. 200 - L.D. 465
An Act to Update Waste Discharge License Fees
Be it enacted by the People of the State of Maine as follows:
Sec. 1. 38 MRSA §353-B, sub-§2, ¶A, as amended by PL 2019, c. 631, §1, is
further amended to read:
A. The fees for waste discharge license groups are the 2019 bill amounts increased by
a factor of 1.4, unless otherwise indicated, as follows.
Discharge group Basis for
annual fee
Median fee for
discharge group
Water quality
improvement
surcharge

Publicly owned
treatment
facilities, 10,000
gallons per day
or less
annual fee 2019 bill
amount
$543

Publicly owned
treatment
facilities, more
than 10,000
gallons per day
to 0.1 million
gallons per day
annual fee 2019 bill
amount
$689

Publicly owned
treatment
facilities, more
than 0.1 million
gallons per day
to 1.0 million
gallons per day
annual fee 2019 bill
amount
$1,063
APPROVED
MAY 9, 2025
BY GOVERNOR
CHAPTER
62
PUBLIC LAW
Page 2 - 132LR0165(03)

Publicly owned
treatment
facilities, more
than 1.0 million
gallons per day
to 5.0 million
gallons per day
annual fee 2019 bill
amount
$2,241

Publicly owned
treatment
facilities, greater
than 5 million
gallons per day
or with
significant
industrial waste
annual fee 2019 bill
amount
$7,850

Major industrial
facility, process
wastewater
(based on EPA
list of major
source
discharges)
annual fee 2019 bill
amount
$33,919

Other industrial
facility, process
wastewater
annual fee 2019 bill
amount
$2,093

Food handling or
packaging
wastewater
annual fee 2019 bill
amount
$1,135

Fish-rearing
Terrestrial fish-
rearing facility
0.1 million
gallons per day
or less
annual fee 2019 bill
amount
$538

Fish-rearing
Terrestrial fish-
rearing facility
over 0.1 million
gallons per day
annual fee 2019 bill
amount
$1,368

Page 3 - 132LR0165(03)
Marine
aquaculture
facility
annual fee 2019 bill
amount
$529

Marine finfish
aquaculture
facility
annual fee $1,682 $1,682

Noncontact
cooling water
annual fee 2019 bill
amount
$330

Industrial or
commercial
sources,
miscellaneous or
incidental
nonprocess
wastewater
annual fee 2019 bill
amount
$626

Municipal
combined sewer
overflow
annual fee 2019 bill
amount
$711

Sanitary
wastewater,
excluding
overboard
discharge
annual fee 2019 bill
amount
$1,268

Sanitary
overboard
discharge,
commercial
sources
annual fee 2011 bill
amount
$446 $75

Sanitary
overboard
discharge,
residential
sources 600
gallons per day
or less
annual fee 2011 bill
amount
$231 $75

Page 4 - 132LR0165(03)
Sanitary
overboard
discharge,
residential
sources more
than 600 gallons
per day
annual fee 2011 bill
amount
$313 $75

Sanitary
overboard
discharge, public
sources
annual fee 2011 bill
amount
$315 $75

Aquatic
pesticide
application
annual fee 2019 bill
amount
$1,110

Snow dumps annual fee 2019 bill
amount
$550

Salt and sand
storage pile
annual fee 2019 bill
amount
$738

Log storage
permit
annual fee 2019 bill
amount
$727

General permit
coverage for
industrial storm
water discharges
(except
construction)
annual fee 2019 bill
amount
$588

General permit
coverage for
marine
aquaculture
facility
annual fee 2019 bill
amount
$1,682
$230 $1,682

General permit
coverage for
municipal
separate storm
sewer system
annual fee $1,306 $1,306

General permit
coverage (other)
annual fee 2019 bill
amount
$283

Page 5 - 132LR0165(03)
Experimental
discharge license
license fee 2019 bill
amount
$1,550

New or amended
mixing zone, in
addition to other
applicable fees
flat fee $9,254 ---

Formation of
sanitary district
flat fee $693 ---

Transfer of
license for
residential or
commercial
sanitary
wastewater
flat fee $140 ---
On an annual basis, municipalities and publicly owned treatment works whose
combined sewer overflows have the potential to affect shellfish harvesting areas as
determined by the department by virtue of their locations within estuarine or marine
waters of the State must be assessed a surcharge on their wastewater discharge licenses
in a total amount of $12,000. This amount must be allocated among the municipalities
and publicly owned treatment works according to their prior 3-year average annual
flows as reported to the department.
On an annual basis, publicly owned treatment works whose outfalls licensed for the
discharge of treated effluent cause adjacent shellfish growing areas to be closed for the
purposes of harvesting shellfish must be assessed a license surcharge in a total amount
of $25,000. This amount must be allocated among the publicly owned treatment works
according to the acreage that each licensed outfall closes. This acreage must be
determined by the Department of Marine Resources in consultation with the
department.
Sec. 2. Appropriations and allocations. The following appropriations and
allocations are made.
ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION, DEPARTMENT OF
Maine Environmental Protection Fund 0421
Initiative: Provides allocations for expenditures that support activities for water quality
control operations, including licensing, compliance evaluation, monitoring, data
acquisition, data management and administration.
OTHER SPECIAL REVENUE FUNDS 2025-26 2026-27
All Other $55,791 $57,409
__________ __________
OTHER SPECIAL REVENUE FUNDS TOTAL $55,791 $57,409