Senate Bill No. 552
(By Senators Boley and Fanning)
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[Introduced February 12, 2007; referred to the Committee on
Natural Resources; and then to the Committee on the Judiciary.]
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A BILL to amend and reenact §22-11-8 of the Code of West Virginia,
1931, as amended, relating to modifying the Water Pollution
Control Act to reflect organizational changes made in the
Department of Environmental Protection in previous
legislation.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That §22-11-8 of the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended,
be amended and reenacted to read as follows:
ARTICLE 11. WATER POLLUTION CONTROL ACT.
§22-11-8. Prohibitions; permits required.
(a) The chief secretary may, after public notice and
opportunity for public hearing, issue a permit for the discharge or
disposition of any pollutant or combination of pollutants into
waters of this state upon condition that such the discharge or
disposition meets or will meet all applicable state and federal water quality standards and effluent limitations and all other
requirements of this article and article three, chapter
twenty-two-b of this code.
(b) It is unlawful for any person, unless the person holds a
permit therefor from the division department, which is in full
force and effect, to:
(1) Allow sewage, industrial wastes or other wastes, or the
effluent therefrom, produced by or emanating from any point source,
to flow into the waters of this state;
(2) Make, cause or permit to be made any outlet, or
substantially enlarge or add to the load of any existing outlet,
for the discharge of sewage, industrial wastes or other wastes, or
the effluent therefrom, into the waters of this state;
(3) Acquire, construct, install, modify or operate a disposal
system or part thereof for the direct or indirect discharge or
deposit of treated or untreated sewage, industrial wastes or other
wastes, or the effluent therefrom, into the waters of this state,
or any extension to or addition to such the disposal system;
(4) Increase in volume or concentration any sewage, industrial
wastes or other wastes in excess of the discharges or disposition
specified or permitted under any existing permit;
(5) Extend, modify or add to any point source, the operation
of which would cause an increase in the volume or concentration of
any sewage, industrial wastes or other wastes discharging or
flowing into the waters of the state;
(6) Construct, install, modify, open, reopen, operate or
abandon any mine, quarry or preparation plant, or dispose of any
refuse or industrial wastes or other wastes from any such mine or
quarry or preparation plant: Provided,
That the division's
department's permit is only required wherever the aforementioned
activities cause, may cause or might reasonably be expected to
cause a discharge into or pollution of waters of the state, except
that a permit is required for any preparation plant: Provided,
however,
That unless waived in writing by the chief secretary,
every application for a permit to open, reopen or operate any mine,
quarry or preparation plant or to dispose of any refuse or
industrial wastes or other wastes from any such mine or quarry or
preparation plant shall contain a plan for abandonment of such the
facility or operation, which plan shall comply in all respects to
the requirements of this article. Such The plan of abandonment is
subject to modification or amendment upon application by the permit
holder to the chief secretary
and approval of such the modification
or amendment by the chief
secretary;
(7) Operate any disposal well for the injection or reinjection
underground of any industrial wastes, including, but not limited
to, liquids or gases, or convert any well into such a disposal well
or plug or abandon any such disposal well.
(c) Where a person has a number of outlets emerging into the
waters of this state in close proximity to one another, such the
outlets may be treated as a unit for the purposes of this section and only one permit issued for all such the outlets.
(d) For water pollution control and national pollutant
discharge elimination system permits issued for activities
regulated by the office of mining and reclamation and the office of
oil and gas, the chief of the office of water resources may
delegate functions, procedures and activities to the respective
chiefs of those offices. Permits for such activities shall be
issued under the supervision of and with the signature and approval
of the chief of the office of water resources who shall review and
approve all procedures, effluent limits and other conditions of
such permits.
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(NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to modify the Water
Pollution Control Act to reflect organizational changes made in the
Department of Environmental Protection in previous legislation.
Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken from
the present law, and underscoring indicates new language that would
be added.)
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JUDICIARY COMMITTEE AMENDMENT
By striking out the title and substituting therefor a new
title, to read as follows:
Eng. Senate Bill No. 552--A Bill to amend and reenact §22-11-8
of the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, relating to
authorizing the Secretary of the Department of Environmental
Protection to sign NPDES permits; and correcting antiquated
language throughout.