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[Congressional Bills 118th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 5983 Introduced in House (IH)]
<DOC>
118th CONGRESS
1st Session
H. R. 5983
To amend the Federal Water Pollution Control Act to restore a national
minimum standard of protection for the water resources of the United
States while providing certainty to regulated entities.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
October 18, 2023
Mr. Larsen of Washington (for himself, Mrs. Napolitano, Mr. Beyer, Ms.
Stansbury, Mr. Aguilar, Mr. Allred, Mr. Auchincloss, Ms. Balint, Ms.
Barragan, Mrs. Beatty, Mr. Blumenauer, Ms. Bonamici, Mr. Bowman, Ms.
Brownley, Mr. Carbajal, Mr. Cardenas, Mr. Carson, Mr. Carter of
Louisiana, Mr. Casar, Mr. Case, Ms. Castor of Florida, Mr. Cleaver, Mr.
Cohen, Mr. Connolly, Ms. Crockett, Mr. Crow, Mr. Davis of Illinois, Ms.
DeGette, Mr. DeSaulnier, Mrs. Dingell, Ms. Escobar, Mr. Espaillat, Mr.
Evans, Mrs. Foushee, Ms. Lois Frankel of Florida, Mr. Garcia of
Illinois, Mr. Robert Garcia of California, Ms. Garcia of Texas, Mr.
Goldman of New York, Mr. Gomez, Mr. Gottheimer, Mr. Grijalva, Ms. Hoyle
of Oregon, Mr. Huffman, Ms. Jackson Lee, Ms. Jacobs, Ms. Jayapal, Mr.
Johnson of Georgia, Ms. Kamlager-Dove, Ms. Kaptur, Mr. Khanna, Mr.
Kilmer, Mr. Kim of New Jersey, Mr. Krishnamoorthi, Ms. Lee of
California, Mr. Levin, Mr. Lieu, Mr. Lynch, Mr. Magaziner, Ms. Matsui,
Ms. McClellan, Ms. McCollum, Mr. McGarvey, Mr. McGovern, Mr. Menendez,
Ms. Meng, Mr. Mfume, Ms. Moore of Wisconsin, Mr. Morelle, Mr. Moulton,
Mr. Mullin, Mr. Nadler, Mr. Neguse, Mr. Norcross, Ms. Norton, Ms.
Ocasio-Cortez, Mr. Pallone, Mr. Pascrell, Mr. Payne, Mr. Peters, Ms.
Pingree, Ms. Porter, Ms. Pressley, Mrs. Ramirez, Mr. Raskin, Mr.
Ruppersberger, Ms. Salinas, Ms. Sanchez, Mr. Sarbanes, Ms. Scanlon, Ms.
Schakowsky, Mr. Schiff, Mr. Schneider, Ms. Scholten, Mr. Scott of
Virginia, Ms. Sewell, Mr. Smith of Washington, Ms. Stevens, Ms.
Strickland, Mr. Takano, Mr. Thanedar, Mr. Thompson of Mississippi, Ms.
Titus, Ms. Tokuda, Mr. Tonko, Mr. Torres of New York, Mrs. Trahan, Mr.
Trone, Mr. Vargas, Mr. Vasquez, Ms. Velazquez, Ms. Wasserman Schultz,
Mrs. Watson Coleman, Ms. Wexton, Ms. Williams of Georgia, Ms. Wilson of
Florida, Mr. Castro of Texas, and Ms. Waters) introduced the following
bill
October 25, 2023
Referred to the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure
_______________________________________________________________________
A BILL
To amend the Federal Water Pollution Control Act to restore a national
minimum standard of protection for the water resources of the United
States while providing certainty to regulated entities.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the
United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ``Clean Water Act of 2023''.
SEC. 2. PURPOSES.
The purposes of this Act are as follows:
(1) To reaffirm the commitment of Congress to restore and
maintain the chemical, physical, and biological integrity of
the Nation's protected water resources.
(2) To clearly define the Nation's protected water
resources that are subject to the Federal Water Pollution
Control Act (33 U.S.C. 1252 et seq.) (commonly known as the
``Clean Water Act'') based on the best available scientific
evidence and decades of partnership between the Federal, State,
and Tribal governments to protect water quality.
(3) To eliminate the confusion initiated by the Supreme
Court's overly narrow interpretation of the term ``navigable
waters'' and to reestablish the comprehensive authority
necessary to meet the codified objective of the Clean Water
Act.
(4) To restore a national minimum standard of protection of
the Nation's protected water resources to the fullest extent of
the legislative authority of Congress under the Constitution.
SEC. 3. FINDINGS.
Congress finds the following:
(1) Water is a singular and precious resource that sustains
all life and is fundamental to civilization's survival,
cultural practices, and indigenous ways of life.
(2) Clean and abundant water is important for public
health, agriculture, transportation, flood control, energy
production, recreation, fishing, and municipal and commercial
uses.
(3) Rivers, streams, wetlands, and other water bodies are
hydrologically connected within their watersheds, and
scientific evidence shows that the pollution, impairment, or
destruction of a water body in one location may significantly
affect the chemical, physical, and biological integrity of
other waters.
(4) The Supreme Court's decision in Sackett v. EPA, 598
U.S. 651 (2023), reduces the protections of the Clean Water Act
contrary to, and impairing, the congressional objective of
restoring and maintaining the chemical, physical, and
biological integrity of the Nation's protected water resources.
(5) The decision eliminates Clean Water Act protections for
tens of millions of acres of wetlands, including wetlands that
perform vital functions such as storing water to help reduce
flooding, improving water quality by filtering pollutants,
providing critical and important habitats for aquatic and other
species, and recharging groundwater that provides drinking
water and contributes to downstream flows.
(6) The decision also puts at risk Clean Water Act
protections for millions of miles of small, intermittent, and
ephemeral streams that--
(A) comprise the majority of stream miles in the
United States;
(B) transport large volumes of water to downstream
rivers;
(C) reduce the introduction of pollutants to large
streams and rivers;
(D) provide and purify drinking water supplies;
(E) are especially important to the life cycles of
aquatic organisms; and
(F) aid in flood prevention.
(7) The peer reviewed scientific literature unequivocally
demonstrates that--
(A) streams, regardless of their size or frequency
of flow, are connected to, and strongly influence the
function of, downstream waters; and
(B) wetlands, including wetlands that lack surface
water connections, are physically, chemically, and
biologically connected to, and affect the integrity of,
other protected water resources.
(8) Restoring and maintaining the Nation's protected water
resources, including intrastate waters, is necessary to prevent
significant harm to interstate commerce and sustain a robust
system of interstate commerce in the future.
(9) This Act restores Clean Water Act protections to the
Nation's protected water resources to ensure their chemical,
physical, and biological integrity.
(10) The pollution or other degradation of the Nation's
protected water resources, individually and in the aggregate,
has a substantial relation to and effect on interstate
commerce.
(11) Protected water resources, including streams and
wetlands, provide protection from flooding, and draining or
filling wetlands and channelizing or filling streams can cause
or exacerbate flooding, placing a significant burden on
interstate commerce.
(12) Millions of individuals in the United States depend on
the Nation's protected water resources, including streams and
wetlands, to filter water and recharge surface and subsurface
drinking water supplies, protect human health, and create
economic opportunity.
(13) Source water protection areas containing small,
intermittent, and ephemeral streams replenish public drinking
water supplies serving more than 110 million individuals in the
United States.
(14)(A) Millions of individuals in the United States enjoy
recreational activities that depend on protected water
resources, including streams and wetlands, such as waterfowl
hunting, bird watching, fishing, paddling, and photography.
(B) Those activities and associated travel generate
hundreds of billions of dollars of income each year for the
travel, tourism, recreation, and sporting sectors of the
economy of the United States.
(15) Regionally specific protected water resources, such as
prairie potholes in the upper Midwestern prairies, pocosins in
the Atlantic coastal plain, playa lakes in the southern High
Plains, and Carolina and Delmarva bays along the eastern coast
of the United States, provide unique and critical benefits to
their surrounding regions, including sustainable water quality
and availability, groundwater recharge, wildlife habitat, and
ecological benefits.
(16) Activities that result in the discharge of pollutants
into the Nation's protected water resources, including through
dredging and filling, are commercial or economic in nature,
and, in the aggregate, have a substantial effect on interstate
commerce.
(17) Restoring and maintaining the quality of, and
regulating activities affecting, the Nation's protected water
resources is essential to fulfilling the United States treaty
obligations.
(18) Restoring and maintaining wetlands and other protected
water resources is essential to North American wildlife,
hunters, and anglers.
(19) Restoring and maintaining the quality of, and
regulating activities affecting, the Nation's protected water
resources is necessary to protect Federal land and waters from
degradation.
SEC. 4. PROTECTED WATER RESOURCES.
(a) Definitions.--Section 502 of the Federal Water Pollution
Control Act (33 U.S.C. 1362) is amended--
(1) by amending paragraph (7) to read as follows:
``(7) Protected water resources.--
``(A) In general.--The term `protected water
resources' means all waters subject to the ebb and flow
of the tide, the territorial seas, and all interstate
and intrastate waters (and their tributaries),
including lakes, rivers, streams (including
intermittent and ephemeral streams), wetlands, and all
impoundments of the foregoing, to the fullest extent
that these waters are subject to the legislative power
of Congress under the Constitution.
``(B) Exclusions.--The term `protected water
resources' does not include--
``(i) any category of water body or feature
listed in paragraphs (1) through (8) of section
120.2(b) of title 40, Code of Federal
Regulations, as in effect on March 20, 2023; or
``(ii) any other category of water body or
feature excluded by the Administrator in
accordance with subparagraph (C).
``(C) Review and modifications.--
``(i) Review required.--Not later than 1
year after the date of enactment of the Clean
Water Act of 2023, and periodically thereafter,
the Administrator shall, by rule, review the
categories of water body or feature excluded
under subparagraph (B) to determine, based on
the best available scientific evidence, whether
the implementation of such exclusions, or any
individual exclusion, has a significant
cumulative adverse effect on--
``(I) the chemical, physical, or
biological integrity of--
``(aa) the waters described
in subparagraph (A); or
``(bb) surface waters,
other than those described in
subparagraph (A), that are
sources of water for public
water systems, as such term is
defined in section 1401 of the
Safe Drinking Water Act (42
U.S.C. 300f);
``(II) environmental justice
communities; or
``(III) water resources described
in section 518(e)(2).
``(ii) Modifications and removal.--If the
Administrator determines under clause (i) that
the implementation of the exclusions, or any
individual exclusion, under subparagraph (B)
has a significant adverse effect described in
clause (i), the Administrator shall, by rule
and concurrent with such determination--
``(I) modify the category of water
body or feature so excluded to ensure
that, based on the best available
scientific evidence, the implementation
of such category will not have a
significant cumulative adverse effect
described in clause (i); or
``(II) remove such category.
``(iii) Additional exclusions.--The
Administrator may, by rule, exclude an
additional category of water body or feature
under subparagraph (B) if the Administrator
determines, based on the best available
scientific evidence, that the implementation of
such additional exclusion will not have a
significant cumulative adverse effect described
in clause (i).''; and
(2) by adding at the end the following:
``(28) Wetlands.--The term `wetlands' means those areas
that are inundated or saturated by surface or ground water at a
frequency and duration sufficient to support, and that under
normal circumstances do support, a prevalence of vegetation
typically adapted for life in saturated soil conditions.''.
(b) Conforming Amendments.--
(1) Federal water pollution control act.--The Federal Water
Pollution Control Act (33 U.S.C. 1251 et seq.) is amended--
(A) in sections 101, 102, 104, 106, 208, 301, 302,
303, 304, 319, 401, 404, 405, and 511(c), by striking
``navigable waters'' each place it appears and
inserting ``protected water resources'';
(B) in section 303(c)--
(i) in paragraph (2)(A), by striking ``such
waters'' and inserting ``such protected water
resources''; and
(ii) in paragraph (4)(A), by striking
``such waters'' and inserting ``such protected
water resources'';
(C) in section 304(l)(1) by striking ``navigable
waters'' in the heading and inserting ``protected water
resources'';
(D) in section 305--
(i) in subsection (a), by striking
``navigable waters'' each place it appears and
inserting ``protected water resources''; and
(ii) in subsection (b)(1)--
(I) in subparagraph (A), by
striking ``navigable waters'' and
inserting ``protected water
resources''; and
(II) in subparagraph (B), by
striking ``navigable waters of'' and
inserting ``protected water resources
in'';
(E) in section 311--
(i) in subsections (a)(11), (b), and (m),
by striking ``navigable waters of the United
States'' each place it appears and inserting
``protected water resources''; and
(ii) in subsections (c) and (j), by
striking ``navigable waters'' each place it
appears and inserting ``protected water
resources'';
(F) in section 312--
(i) in subsections (a) and (b), by striking
``navigable waters'' each place it appears and
inserting ``protected water resources''; and
(ii) in subsections (h), (l), and (n), by
striking ``navigable waters of the United
States'' each place it appears and inserting
``protected water resources'';
(G) in section 319, by striking ``such waters''
each place it appears and inserting ``such protected
water resources'';
(H) in section 402--
(i) in subsection (a)(4), by striking
``into the navigable waters'';
(ii) in subsections (b), (g), and (n)(1),
by striking ``navigable waters'' each place it
appears and inserting ``protected water
resources''; and
(iii) in subsection (n)(2), by striking
``navigable waters of'' and inserting
``protected water resources in'';
(I) in section 404--
(i) in subsection (f)(2), by striking
``such waters'' and inserting ``such protected
water resources''; and
(ii) in subsection (g)(1)--
(I) by striking ``those waters''
and inserting ``those protected water
resources''; and
(II) by striking ``all waters'' and
inserting ``all protected water
resources'';
(J) in paragraphs (11) and (12) of section 502, by
striking ``navigable waters'' each place it appears and
inserting ``protected water resources''; and
(K) in section 511(b), by inserting ``as discharges
of pollutants into protected water resources'' after
``shall be regulated''.
(2) Oil pollution act of 1990.--Section 1001(21) of the Oil
Pollution Act of 1990 (33 U.S.C. 2701(21)) is amended by
striking ``waters of the United States, including the
territorial sea'' and inserting ``protected water resources (as
defined in section 502 of the Federal Water Pollution Control
Act)''.
<all>
Introduced in House
Introduced in House
Referred to the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure.
Referred to the Subcommittee on Water Resources and Environment.
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