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First Substitute H.B. 132

Representative Bill Wright proposes the following substitute bill:


             1     
WATER QUALITY AMENDMENTS

             2     
2011 GENERAL SESSION

             3     
STATE OF UTAH

             4     
Chief Sponsor: Bill Wright

             5     
Senate Sponsor: Ralph Okerlund

             6     
             7      LONG TITLE
             8      General Description:
             9          This bill modifies and enacts provisions of the Water Quality Act.
             10      Highlighted Provisions:
             11          This bill:
             12          .    authorizes the Water Quality Board to make rules relating to agriculture water that
             13      are more stringent than federal regulations if the Conservation Commission
             14      approves;
             15          .    requires board and commission cooperation in making rules related to agriculture
             16      water; and
             17          .    establishes provisions relating to damages resulting from an agriculture discharge.
             18      Money Appropriated in this Bill:
             19          None
             20      Other Special Clauses:
             21          None
             22      Utah Code Sections Affected:
             23      AMENDS:
             24          19-5-102, as last amended by Laws of Utah 2001, Chapter 274
             25          19-5-105, as renumbered and amended by Laws of Utah 1991, Chapter 112


             26      ENACTS:
             27          19-5-105.5, Utah Code Annotated 1953
             28     
             29      Be it enacted by the Legislature of the state of Utah:
             30          Section 1. Section 19-5-102 is amended to read:
             31           19-5-102. Definitions.
             32          As used in this chapter:
             33          (1) "Agriculture discharge":
             34          (a) means the release of agriculture water from the property of a farm, ranch, or feed lot
             35      that:
             36          (i) pollutes a surface body of water, including a stream, lake, pond, marshland,
             37      watercourse, waterway, river, ditch, and other water conveyance system of the state;
             38          (ii) pollutes the ground water of the state; or
             39          (iii) constitutes a significant nuisance on urban land; and
             40          (b) does not include:
             41          (i) runoff from a farm, ranch, or feed lot or return flows from irrigated fields onto land
             42      that is not part of a body of water; or
             43          (ii) a release into a normally dry water conveyance to an active body of water, unless
             44      the release reaches the water of a lake, pond, stream, marshland, river, or other active body of
             45      water.
             46          (2) "Agriculture water" means:
             47          (a) water used by a farmer, rancher, or feed lot for the production of food, fiber, or fuel;
             48          (b) return flows from irrigated agriculture; and
             49          (c) agricultural storm water runoff.
             50          [(1)] (3) "Board" means the Water Quality Board created in Section 19-1-106 .
             51          (4) "Commission" means the Conservation Commission created in Section 4-18-4 .
             52          [(2)] (5) "Contaminant" means any physical, chemical, biological, or radiological
             53      substance or matter in water.
             54          [(3)] (6) "Discharge" means the addition of any pollutant to any waters of the state.
             55          [(4)] (7) "Discharge permit" means a permit issued to a person who:
             56          (a) discharges or whose activities would probably result in a discharge of pollutants


             57      into the waters of the state; or
             58          (b) generates or manages sewage sludge.
             59          [(5)] (8) "Disposal system" means a system for disposing of wastes, and includes
             60      sewerage systems and treatment works.
             61          [(6)] (9) "Effluent limitations" means any restrictions, requirements, or prohibitions,
             62      including schedules of compliance established under this chapter which apply to discharges.
             63          [(7)] (10) "Executive secretary" means the executive secretary of the board.
             64          [(8)] (11) "Point source":
             65          (a) means any discernible, confined, and discrete conveyance, including but not limited
             66      to any pipe, ditch, channel, tunnel, conduit, well, discrete fissure, container, rolling stock,
             67      concentrated animal feeding operation, or vessel or other floating craft, from which pollutants
             68      are or may be discharged; and
             69          (b) does not include return flows from irrigated agriculture.
             70          [(9)] (12) "Pollution" means any man-made or man-induced alteration of the chemical,
             71      physical, biological, or radiological integrity of any waters of the state, unless the alteration is
             72      necessary for the public health and safety.
             73          [(10)] (13) "Publicly owned treatment works" means any facility for the treatment of
             74      pollutants owned by the state, its political subdivisions, or other public entity.
             75          [(11)] (14) "Schedule of compliance" means a schedule of remedial measures,
             76      including an enforceable sequence of actions or operations leading to compliance with this
             77      chapter.
             78          [(12)] (15) "Sewage sludge" means any solid, semisolid, or liquid residue removed
             79      during the treatment of municipal wastewater or domestic sewage.
             80          [(13)] (16) "Sewerage system" means pipelines or conduits, pumping stations, and all
             81      other constructions, devices, appurtenances, and facilities used for collecting or conducting
             82      wastes to a point of ultimate disposal.
             83          [(14)] (17) "Treatment works" means any plant, disposal field, lagoon, dam, pumping
             84      station, incinerator, or other works used for the purpose of treating, stabilizing, or holding
             85      wastes.
             86          [(15)] (18) "Underground injection" means the subsurface emplacement of fluids by
             87      well injection.


             88          [(16)] (19) "Underground wastewater disposal system" means a system for disposing of
             89      domestic wastewater discharges as defined by the board and the executive director.
             90          [(17)] (20) "Waste" or "pollutant" means dredged spoil, solid waste, incinerator
             91      residue, sewage, garbage, sewage sludge, munitions, chemical wastes, biological materials,
             92      radioactive materials, heat, wrecked or discarded equipment, rock, sand, cellar dirt, and
             93      industrial, municipal, and agricultural waste discharged into water.
             94          [(18)] (21) "Waters of the state":
             95          (a) means all streams, lakes, ponds, marshes, watercourses, waterways, wells, springs,
             96      irrigation systems, drainage systems, and all other bodies or accumulations of water, surface
             97      and underground, natural or artificial, public or private, which are contained within, flow
             98      through, or border upon this state or any portion of the state; and
             99          (b) does not include bodies of water confined to and retained within the limits of
             100      private property, and which do not develop into or constitute a nuisance, a public health hazard,
             101      or a menace to fish or wildlife.
             102          Section 2. Section 19-5-105 is amended to read:
             103           19-5-105. Rulemaking authority and procedure.
             104          (1) Except as provided in [Subsection] Subsections (2) and (3), no rule [which] that the
             105      board makes for the purpose of the state administering a program under the federal Clean
             106      Water Act or the federal Safe Drinking Water Act may be more stringent than the
             107      corresponding federal regulations which address the same circumstances. In making rules, the
             108      board may incorporate by reference corresponding federal regulations.
             109          (2) The board may make rules more stringent than corresponding federal regulations
             110      for the purpose described in Subsection (1), only if it makes a written finding after public
             111      comment and hearing and based on evidence in the record that the corresponding federal
             112      regulations are not adequate to protect public health and the environment of the state. Those
             113      findings shall be accompanied by an opinion referring to and evaluating the public health and
             114      environmental information and studies contained in the record which form the basis for the
             115      board's conclusion.
             116          (3) The board may make rules related to agriculture water more stringent than the
             117      corresponding federal regulations if the commission approves.
             118          Section 3. Section 19-5-105.5 is enacted to read:


             119          19-5-105.5. Agriculture water.
             120          (1) (a) The board shall draft any rules relating to agriculture water in cooperation with
             121      the commission.
             122          (b) The commission shall advise the board before the board may adopt rules relating to
             123      agriculture water.
             124          (2) A program or rule adopted by the board for agriculture production or irrigation
             125      water shall:
             126          (a) be consistent with the federal Clean Water Act; and
             127          (b) if possible, be developed in a voluntary cooperative program with the agriculture
             128      producer associations and the commission.
             129          (3) (a) The board's authority to regulate a discharge is subject to Subsection (3)(b)
             130      relating to an agriculture discharge.
             131          (b) (i) A person responsible for an agriculture discharge shall mitigate the resulting
             132      damage in a reasonable manner, as approved by the executive secretary after consulting with
             133      the commission chair.
             134          (ii) A penalty imposed on an agriculture discharge shall be proportionate to the
             135      seriousness of the resulting harm, as determined by the executive secretary in consultation with
             136      the commission chair.
             137          (iii) An agriculture producer may not be held liable for an agriculture discharge
             138      resulting from a large weather event if the agriculture producer has taken reasonable measures
             139      to prevent an agriculture discharge.


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