Chapter

Chapter 222

2004 -- H 8638 as amended

Enacted 6/30/04

A N A C T

RELATING TO WATERS AND NAVIGATION -- WATER POLLUTION

Introduced By: Representatives Ginaitt, Giannini, Naughton, Crowley, and Long

Date Introduced: June 10, 2004

It is enacted by the General Assembly as follows:

SECTION 1. Sections 46-12-1, 46-12-2 and 46-12-3 of the General Laws in Chapter 46-

12 entitled "Water Pollution" are hereby amended to read as follows:

46-12-1. Definitions. -- As used in this chapter the following terms shall, where the

context permits, be construed as follows:

(1) "Boat" means any vessel or water craft whether moved by oars, paddles, sails, or

other power mechanism, inboard or outboard, or any other vessel or structure floating upon the

water whether or not capable of self locomotion, including house boats, barges, and similar

floating objects.

(2) "Clean Water Act" refers to the federal law enacted under 33 U.S.C. section 1251 et

seq., and all amendments thereto.

(3) (i) "Director" shall be held to mean the director of the department of environmental

management or any subordinate or subordinates to whom the director has delegated the powers

and duties vested in him or her by this chapter.

(ii) Wherever reference is made in this chapter to any order of the director and the order

shall have been modified by the court, the order referred to shall be taken to be the order of the

director as so modified.

(4) "Discharge" means the addition of any pollutant to the waters from any point source.

(5) "Effluent limitation" means any restriction or prohibitions, established in accord with

the provisions of this chapter or under the federal Clean Water Act, 33 U.S.C. section 1251 et

seq., on quantities, rates, and concentrations of chemical, physical, biological, radiological, and

other constituents which are discharged into the waters.

(6) "Fecal coliform bacteria" means organisms within the intestines of warm blooded

animals that indicate the presence of fecal material, and the potential presence of organisms

capable of causing disease in humans.

(7) "Groundwaters" shall include all underground waters of whatever nature.

(8) "Marine Sanitation Device-Type I" means a marine toilet which, under prescribed

test conditions, will produce an effluent that will not exceed a fecal coliform bacteria count of one

thousand (1,000) parts per one hundred (100) milliliters and have no visible solids.

(9) "Marine Sanitation Device-Type II" means a marine toilet which, under prescribed

test conditions will produce an effluent that does not exceed a fecal coliform bacteria count of

two hundred (200) parts per one hundred (100) milliliters, and have suspended solids not greater

than one hundred and fifty (150) milligrams per liter.

(10) "Marine Sanitation Device-Type III" means a marine toilet which is designed to

prevent the discharge from the boat of any treated or untreated sewage, or any waste derived from

sewage.

(11) "Marine toilet" means any toilet on or within any boat as that term is defined herein.

(12) "No discharge zone" means an environmentally sensitive area of the waters of the

state which has been declared by the department of environmental management pursuant to the

Clean Water Act, 33 U.S.C. section 1251 et seq., to be an area in which any discharge of sewage

is prohibited.

(13) "Person" shall include an individual, trust, firm, joint stock company, corporation

(including a quasi government corporation) partnership, association, syndicate, municipality,

municipal or state agency, fire district, club, nonprofit agency, or any subdivision, commission,

department, bureau, agency, or department of state or federal government (including any quasi

government corporation) or of any interstate body.

(14) "Point source" means any discernible, confined, and discrete conveyance, including,

but not limited to, any pipe, ditch, channel, tunnel, conduit, well, discrete fissure, container,

rolling stock, concentrated animal feeding operation, or vessel or other floating craft from which

pollutants are or may be discharged. This term does not include return flows from irrigated

agriculture.

(15) "Pollutant" means any material or effluent which may alter the chemical, physical,

biological, or radiological characteristics and/or integrity of water, including but not limited to,

dredged spoil, solid waste, incinerator residue, sewage, garbage, sewage sludge, munitions,

chemical wastes, biological materials, radioactive materials, heat, wrecked or discarded

equipment, cellar dirt or industrial, municipal, agricultural, or other waste petroleum or petroleum

products, including but not limited to oil.

(16) "Polluting" shall be held to mean the causing of pollution.

(17) "Pollution" means the man made or man induced alteration of the chemical,

physical, biological, and radiological integrity of water.

(18) "Publicly owned treatment works" means any facility for the treatment of pollutants

owned by the state or any political subdivision thereof, municipality, or other public entity,

including any quasi government corporation.

(19) "Release" shall mean any spilling, leaking, pumping, pouring, emitting, emptying,

injecting, escaping, leaching, dumping, or disposing of any pollutant into a surface water or

wetland, or onto or below the land surface.

(20) "Schedule of compliance" means a schedule of remedial measures including an

enforceable sequence of actions, or operations, leading to compliance with an effluent limitation

or any other limitation, prohibition, or standard.

(21) "Sewage" means fecal material and human waste, or wastes from toilets and other

receptacles intended to receive or retain body waste, and any wastes, including wastes from

human households, commercial establishments, and industries, and storm water runoff, that are

discharged to or otherwise enter a publicly owned treatment works.

(22) "Underground storage tank" shall mean any one or combination of tanks (including

underground pipes connected thereto) which is used to contain an accumulation of petroleum

product or hazardous materials, and the volume of which (including the volume of the

underground pipes connected thereto) is ten percent (10%) or more beneath the surface of the

ground.

(23) "Waters" shall include all surface waters including all waters of the territorial sea,

tidewaters, all inland waters of any river, stream, brook, pond, or lake, and wetlands, as well as all

groundwaters.

(24) “Eutrophication” means a reduction of dissolved oxygen from excessive plant

growth, chiefly algae, typically as an effect of increased nutrient loadings, to levels that impair

the viability of other aquatic life.

(25) “Nutrient” means organic materials and chemicals, including especially nitrogen and

phosphorous and their compounds, that are biologically reactive and necessary for life.

46-12-2. Administration. -- (a) It shall be the responsibility of the director of

environmental management to administer this chapter. Within the department of environmental

management, the director may employ personnel who shall come within the classified service in

accordance with the laws of this state for the purposes of this chapter, and may delegate to a

subordinate or subordinates any or all the powers and duties vested in the director hereunder. The

general assembly shall annually appropriate such sums as it may deem necessary for the expenses

of administering this chapter.

(b) The department of environmental management is hereby designated as the state water

pollution control agency for this state for all purposes of the Clean Water Act, as amended, 33

U.S.C. 1251 et seq., and is hereby authorized to take all action necessary or appropriate to secure

to this state the benefits of that act.

underground injection control program under the federal Safe Drinking Water Act, as amended,

42 U.S.C. 300f et seq., and is hereby authorized to take all action necessary or appropriate to

secure to this state the benefits of that program.

(d) The department of environmental management is hereby designated to administer the

wellhead protection program as approved by the federal environmental protection agency and in

accordance with the federal Safe Drinking Water Act, as amended, 42 U.S.C. 300f et seq., and is

hereby authorized to take all actions necessary or appropriate to secure to this state the benefits of

that program. The department of environmental management shall cooperate and coordinate

wellhead protection program activities with the department of health public drinking water supply

program.

(e) The department of environmental management is hereby designated to administer the

underground storage tank program as approved by the federal environmental protection agency

pursuant to the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, as amended, 42 U.S.C. 6901 et seq.,

and is hereby authorized to take all necessary or appropriate actions to secure to this state the

benefits of this program, including participation via cooperative agreement with the

environmental protection agency (EPA) in the leaking underground storage tank trust fund.

(f) The department of environmental management is hereby designated to establish,

administer, and enforce standards for nutrients as necessary to protect, maintain and/or improve

the ecological functions of the marine and aquatic resources of the state; and to prepare, adopt,

and implement plans as necessary and appropriate to accomplish the purposes of managing

nutrient loadings and preventing, abating, and/or eliminating the deleterious effects of nutrients,

including, but not limited to, eutrophication, harmful algal blooms, hypoxia, anoxia, oxygen-

stress-induced population shifts, and/or fish kills. To implement the purposes of this subsection,

the department shall implement measures to achieve an overall goal of reducing nitrogen loadings

from waste water treatment facilities by fifty percent (50%) by December 31, 2008,

which date, in its implementation, may be adjusted to be consistent with compliance with permit

modifications, through waste water treatment facility upgrades scheduled to be undertaken by

December 31, 2006, and through proposed permit modifications, which shall be issued by the department on

or before July 1, 2004. The department shall report on the implementation of these measures in the report

required by subsection 46-12-3(25).

46-12-3. Powers and duties of the director. -- In addition to the other powers granted

the director of environmental management herein, the director shall have and may exercise the

following powers and duties:

(1) To exercise general supervision of the administration and enforcement of this

chapter, and all rules and regulations and orders promulgated hereunder;

(2) To develop comprehensive programs for the prevention, control, and abatement of

new or existing pollution of the waters of this state;

(3) To advise, consult, and cooperate with other agencies of the state, the federal

government, other states, and interstate agencies and with affected groups, political subdivisions,

and industries in the furtherance of the purposes of this chapter;

(4) To accept and administer loans and grants from the federal government and from

other sources, public or private, for the carrying out of any of its functions, which loans and

grants shall not be expended for other than the purposes for which provided;

(5) To encourage, participate in, or conduct studies, investigations, research, and

demonstrations relating to water pollution and its causes, prevention, control, and abatement

thereof, as he or she may deem advisable and necessary for the discharge of his or her duties

under this chapter;

(6) To collect and disseminate information relating to water pollution and the prevention,

control, and abatement thereof;

(7) Except as otherwise provided in subsection (24) below, to promulgate standards of

water quality and to classify the waters of the state accordingly;

(8) To administer state grants to municipalities and political subdivisions for the

construction of sewage treatment works;

(9) To hold hearings, to issue notices of hearings and subpoenas requiring the attendance

of witnesses and the production of evidence, and to administer oaths and to take testimony, that

he or she may deem necessary;

(10) To approve, pursuant to standards adopted by the environmental standards board,

the construction, modification, and operation of discharge systems or any parts thereof, and to

require the prior submission of plans, specifications, and other data relative to discharge systems

and to require that the plans, specifications, or other data be certified by a professional engineer

registered in Rhode Island, and to inspect the systems either under construction or in operation;

(11) To issue a permit for the discharge of any pollutant or combination of pollutants or

to issue a general permit authorizing a category of discharges within a geographical area upon

conditions as may be necessary to carry out the purposes of this chapter and of the Clean Water

Act, 33 U.S.C. section 1251 et seq., which may include, but not be limited to, providing for

specific effluent limitations and levels of treatment technology, monitoring, recording, and

reporting standards, or to deny a permit or general permit;

(12) To renew, revoke, modify, or suspend in whole or in part any permit, order, or

schedule of compliance pursuant to the provisions of this chapter, and any rules and regulations

promulgated thereunder;

(13) To approve the discharge of pollutants into the waters of this state pursuant to all

applicable standards;

(14) To require publicly owned treatment works to adopt and implement requirements

regarding the pretreatment of pollutants consistent with existing federal requirements, and to

require compliance by all persons with pretreatment requirements;

(15) To issue such orders as may be necessary to prevent the unauthorized construction,

modification, or operation of discharge systems and the discharge of pollutants into the waters of

this state;

(16) To require proper maintenance and operation of discharge systems;

(17) To consult the advisory council on environmental affairs on the policies and plans

for the control and abatement of pollution;

(18) To make, issue, amend, and revoke reasonable rules and regulations for the

prevention, control, and abatement of pollution and the enforcement of orders issued hereunder,

including public notice and comment requirements;

(19) To exercise all incidental powers necessary to carry out the purposes of this chapter;

(20) To approve the operation of treatment facilities, pursuant to the provisions of

chapters 3, 11, and 18 of title 44;

(21) To promulgate and enforce rules and regulations to govern the location, design,

construction, maintenance, and operation of underground storage facilities used for storing

petroleum products or hazardous materials to prevent, abate, and remedy the discharge of

petroleum products and hazardous materials into the waters of the state; provided that all

underground storage tanks and associated piping installed after September 1, 1991 shall provide

for secondary containment in a manner approved by the director; and provided that the

installation of underground storage tanks is prohibited at sites located within wellhead protection

areas for community water supply wells as designated by the director and consistent with chapter

46-13.1. This prohibition shall not apply to the replacement or upgrading of existing underground

storage tanks installed prior to July 1, 1991, provided that such activity take place in accordance

with all applicable state and federal regulations;

(22) To promulgate and enforce rules and regulations to govern the installation,

construction, operation, and abandonment of monitoring wells; ~~and~~

(23) To promulgate and enforce rules and regulations to govern the location, design,

installation, operation and maintenance of subsurface disposal systems which receive the

discharge of pollutants and of subsurface containment systems, including underground storage

tanks, used to contain or control the discharge of pollutants below the ground surface.;

(24) In connection with the dredging and transportation and disposal of dredge material,

to promulgate and adopt water quality standards that conform with the federal environmental

protection agency's applicable water quality rules and regulations and guidelines, including but

not limited to, the federal environmental protection agency's rules and regulations and guidelines

for deviating from said standards. The department of environmental management shall also apply

the applicable standards and guidelines and adopt the procedures as set forth in the manual

identified as "Evaluation of Dredge Material for Purpose of Ocean Disposal. Testing Manual Put

Together by EPA and Army Corps of Engineers in February, 1991" and any amendments or

supplements or successor manuals thereto to the extent that the same are relevant to dredging,

transportation and/or disposal of dredge materials in tidal waters or any documents or manuals

approved by the federal environmental protection agency relating to dredging, transportation

and/or disposal of dredge materials.; and

(25) To prepare and to submit to the governor, the speaker of the house, the president of

the senate, the chairperson of the house committee on environment and natural resources and the

chairperson of the senate committee on environment and agriculture, not later than February 1,

2005, a plan, including an implementation program with cost estimates, recommended sources of

funding, measurable goals, objectives, and targets and limitations for nutrient introduction into

the waters of the state, for the purposes of: (i) managing nutrient loadings and the effects of

nutrients in the waters of the state; and (ii) preventing and eliminating conditions of

eutrophication.

SECTION 2. This act shall take effect upon passage.

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LC03556

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