Clean Water Act Amendments of 1985

Clean Water Act Amendments of 1985 - Title I: Regulatory Amendments - Amends the Clean Water Act (Federal Water Pollution Control Act) to extend the authorization of appropriations through FY 1989.

Directs the Administrator of the Environmental Protection agency (EPA) to continue the Chesapeake Bay Program and establish an Office for same within EPA to: (1) collect and disseminate research and other information on the environmental quality of the Bay; (2) coordinate Federal research efforts; (3) conduct research on sediment deposition in the Bay; and (4) conduct research on how environmental changes effect the living resources of the Bay, with particular emphasis on the impact of pollutant loadings. Directs the Administrator to make a grant to a State affected by the interstate management plan developed under the Bay Program to implement management mechanisms in the plan if the State has approved and committed to implement all or substantially all aspects of the plan. Requires a State or combination of the States, in order to qualify for such grants, to submit a plan for proposed abatement actions to reduce Bay pollution and meet applicable water quality standards and estimated costs for the approval of the Administrator. Limits such grants to 55 percent of the plan implementation costs. Limits administrative costs. Requires States to submit progress reports biennially to the Administrator for transmittal to the Congress.

Directs the Administrator to make a grant to an affected State to assess the principal factors having an adverse effect on the environmental quality of the Narragansett Bay in conjunction with developing and implementing a management program to improve such Bay's water quality. Limits such grants to 55 percent of the program implementation costs. Requires a State to submit a description of the proposed program for Administrator approval, demonstrating that it will: (1) establish a committee to provide advice on design and implementation of a management program and to coordinate communication on issues affecting such Bay's water quality; (2) review and coordinate water pollution abatement programs and research; (3) establish methods for improving sampling data collection and a system for collecting, analyzing, storing, and disseminating such data; and (4) develop and implement water quality management practices and measures to reduce pollutant loadings in such Bay. Requires States to submit annual progress reports to the Administrator.

Authorizes appropriations for FY 1986 through 1988 for such Chesapeake and Narragansett Bays programs.

Directs the Administrator to award an annual grant to support a National Clearinghouse on small flows and innovative or alternative technologies information.

Extends for three years, through July 1, 1987, the outside compliance dates for direct dischargers to: (1) achieve best available technology (BAT) effluent limitations for toxic pollutants and of nonconventional pollutants; (2) achieve best conventional technology (BCT) for specified conventional pollutants; and (3) meet effluent limitations through best practicable control (BPT) or according to permit requirements based on best judgment.

Makes eligibility requirements more stringent for a municipal treatment facility to receive an ocean discharge waiver. Requires such works to be in compliance with applicable pretreatment requirements and, if serving a population of 5,000 or more, to be enforcing a toxic pollutant control program for industrial pollution comparable to Federal categorical pretreatment standards. Requires such a facility to be providing a minimum of primary treatment of its municipal effluent, including disinfection when appropriate, at the time of the waiver application. Requires the affected marine waters to exhibit the physical and tidal characteristics sufficient for effective flushing action. Requires the level of effluent concentration in saline estuarine waters to be nondeleterious to marine life and use. Permits a municipal facility, subject to specified conditions, to apply for an ocean waiver if under a contract made prior to December 31, 1982, if it discharged its sewage into another municipal facility which itself has applied for an ocean waiver.

Requires States to identify bodies of water within or adjacent to them which will not meet State water quality standards because of toxic pollutants after the implementation of BAT.

Requires the Administrator within two years of this Act's enactment to develop guidelines for such identification and for measuring water quality criteria for toxic pollutants on other than pollutant-by-pollutant criteria, using biomonitoring assessment techniques. Directs the States to establish numerical criteria based on EPA's national water quality criteria for toxic pollutants which could otherwise interfere with designated water uses. Permits such criteria to include the use of biological monitoring or assessments methods.

Directs a State, within two years of identifying post-BAT toxic polluted waters, to establish effluent limitations for point sources discharging into such navigable waters, incorporating such limitations into discharge permits and taking substantial nonpoint source pollution into account. Requires compliance within three years of the limitations' establishment and the consideration of public health as a factor when establishing such limitations.

Permits the Administrator, with State concurrence, to modify effluent limitations: (1) if a non-toxic polluter demonstrates that complete compliance does not satisfy a reasonable cost-benefit analysis; or (2) for five years if a toxic polluter demonstrates that a modified maximum limitation within the polluter's economic means will result in reasonable progress to post-BAT water quality standards.

Directs the Administrator, within three years of this Act's enactment, to publish guidelines for effluent limitations for toxic pollutants for industrial categories currently without such guidelines.

Revises national pollutant discharge elimitation systems (NPDES) permits to require a publicly-owned municipal treatment works to meet the requirements of its permits through its own efforts rather than through mandatory pretreatment of conventional pollutants by indirect dischargers.

Increases the daily, judicially-imposed civil penalty for violations of the Clean Water Act. Authorizes the Administrator to assess additional civil penalties daily, up to a specified amount, subject to review procedures.

Increases criminal penalties for knowing violations of the Clean Water Act to the felony level and establishes criminal penalties for introducing harmful substances into sewer systems or a publicly-owned treatment works.

Revises the NPDES to permit the Administrator to delegate a portion of such system to a State with an approved plan for assuming administration of the entire program within five years or for administering one or more discharge categories. Provides for the return of such system to the Federal Government at a State's or the Administrator's behest.

Increases from five to ten years the NPDES permit term for those permits without waivers or modifications. Requires the prompt modification of permits whenever more stringent requirements or new pollutant controls are established.

Revises venue provisions to permit an applicant for judicial review of certain Administrator actions to bring suit in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal district in which such applicant has its principal place of business or where such applicant transacts the business which is directly affected by the action in question. Increases the appeal period. Provides a random selection procedure to determine the forum when reviews of a particular EPA action have been filed in more than one court. Empowers the court to award attorney's fees to a prevailing or substantially prevailing party.

Requires States to develop Administrator-approved nonpoint source pollution management programs identifying: (1) the waters prevented from meeting applicable standards by such pollution; (2) categories of such pollutants; (3) best management practices to institute; (4) an implementation schedule; (5) any additional State authorities necessary for the program, including an implementation schedule for acquiring such authorities; and (6) the effect of existing Federal programs on such program. Provides for resubmittal of rejected programs which are subsequently modified. Directs the Administrator to develop a program for any State which fails to do so and report on his or her actions to the Congress.

Directs the Administrator to make grants to States of up to 75 percent of implementation costs if remaining funds are non-Federal.

Sets forth a per State allotment schedule, reserving one-third of the available funds for particularly difficult problems, innovative technology, interstate pollution, and Indian tribes.

Directs the Administrator to reallot unobligated funds. Sets forth conditions on fund usage. Authorizes appropriations for FY 1986 through 1988. Requires each State to report to the Administrator annually on its progress.

Directs the Administrator to transmit to the Office of Management and Budget and the appropriate Federal departments and agencies a list of those assistance programs and development projects identified by States for which individual assistance applications and projects will be reviewed. Requires each Federal department and agency to modify existing regulations to allow States to conduct such review and accommodate the concerns of the State regarding the consistency of such applications or projects with the State program.

Directs the Administrator to collect and make available information pertaining to management practices and implementation methods.

Directs the Administrator, within three years of this Act's enactment, to report to the Congress on the State management programs and grants to States.

Exempts from permit requirements any effluent limitation, certain stormwater runoff discharges from mining operations or oil or gas exploration, production, processing, or treatment operations. Requires exempted run-offs to be a product of precipitation flows or systems designed to collect or convey such water. Requires that such run-offs be uncontaminated (as determined by the Administrator).

Sets forth anti-backsliding requirements relating to renewal or reissuance of NPDES permits.

Revises the sewage sludge disposal timetable. Directs the Administrator to identify in two stages, one year apart, starting within six months of this Act's enactment, those toxic pollutants which may be present in sewage sludge in concentrations which may adversely affect public health or the environment. Directs the Administrator to publish regulations specifying acceptable management practices and establishing numerical limitations for each such pollutant and requiring compliance within six months after publication. Requires that such regulations be published within one year of the pollutant's identification. Authorizes the Administrator to promulgate a design, equipment, management practice, or operational standard for certain pollutants if a numerical limitation is not feasible and the same protection can be achieved.

Directs the Administrator to finally resolve disputes between States as to whether a proposed or already permitted discharge or a discharge not subject to permit in one State would or does violate water quality standards or adversely affect public health in another State.

States that nothing in the Clean Water Act preempts redress mechanisms available under State common law or other Federal statutes. Applies State law in cases of interstate pollution.

Directs the Administrator, within two years after the enactment of this Act, to report to the Congress on hazardous wastes identified or listed under the Solid Waste Disposal Act which are excluded from regulation under hazardous waste management provisions of such Act (under regulations exempting mixtures of domestic sewage and other wastes that pass through a sewer system to a publicly owned treatment works for treatment). Requires that such report evaluate whether such exclusion should continue.

Permits the town of Hampton, New Hampshire, to continue using its ad valorem tax user charge system for collecting the costs of operation and maintenance of its sewage treatment works in satisfaction of specified requirements for grants for treatment works. Requires the Administrator to review such system for compliance with other requirements.

Imposes a cap on raw sewage discharges from the drainage areas of the North River plant, Manhattan, New York, and the Red Hook Plant, Brooklyn, New York, into navigable waters (the Hudson-Raritan Estuary) if New York City fails to meet the deadlines for achieving advanced preliminary treatment contained in the consent decree of December 30, 1982 (August 1, 1986, for the North River plant; August 1, 1987, for the Red Hook plant). Permits the Administrator to raise such cap for seasonal variation or so-called acts of God.

States that violations of this Act shall be considered violations of the Clean Water Act, as well as of the consent decree.

Expresses the sense of the Congress that the Administrator should not agree to any further modification of the advanced preliminary treatment schedule in the consent decree.

Directs the Administrator to work with New York City, implement monitoring activities for both plants, and commence enforcement actions in the event of unexcused violations.

Title II: Construction Grant Amendments - Authorizes appropriations for publicly-owned waste treatment works construction grants for FY 1986 through FY 1990. Allocates funds among the States.