The review of water quality standards and variances to water quality standards by the Department of Natural Resources and exempting certain actions of the Department of Natural Resources and the Department of Administration from the requirement to promulgate rules relating to the statewide water quality variance for phosphorus. (FE)

Current law also creates a statewide variance for phosphorous water quality standards. An existing point source may request to have the statewide phosphorous variance apply to that source under the source's WPDES permit. Current law sets the interim effluent limitations that apply to a point source for which the statewide phosphorus variance has been approved. Before the statewide phosphorus variance may be made available for any point source, the Department of Administration must determine that complying with the applicable phosphorous effluent limitations is not feasible, and the federal Environmental Protection Agency must approve the statewide phosphorus variance.

Three-year review of water quality standards and variances This bill requires DNR to review, every three years, the water quality standards that it has promulgated to determine whether the standards should be modified or new standards should be adopted. As part of this review, DNR must also review the variances to water quality standards that it has approved, including approvals under the statewide phosphorus variance. If DNR determines that a water quality standard to which a variance applies is attainable by a permittee, DNR is required to modify the variance when the source's permit is reissued or modified.

The bill requires DNR to hold a public hearing as part of this review, and to submit the results of its review to the EPA.

Five-year review of statewide phosphorus variance This bill also requires DNR to review, every five years, the interim effluent limitations under the statewide phosphorus variance to determine whether they are consistent with the highest attainable condition for the point sources that are eligible for the statewide phosphorus variance. DNR must hold a public hearing as part of this review and submit the results of its review to the EPA within 30 days of determining that the review is complete. If DNR does not conduct this review every five years or does not submit the results of a review within 30 days, the statewide phosphorus variance is unavailable until the review is completed or the results are submitted, except that if the statewide phosphorus variance has been approved for a point source, the variance continues to apply to that source until the source's permit is reissued or modified.

If the statewide phosphorus variance has been approved for a point source, the bill also requires DNR to review, at the time the variance is initially approved for the source and each time the source's permit is reissued or modified, the applicable interim effluent limitations to determine whether the they are consistent with the highest attainable condition for the source.

Under the bill, if DNR determines that the applicable interim effluent limitations are not consistent with the highest attainable condition for a permittee or for point sources that are eligible for the statewide phosphorus variance, DNR must include the effluent limitations that were identified as being consistent with the highest attainable condition in any permit that is issued or modified after the date of that determination.