The National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) program controls water pollution by regulating point sources of discharge into the waters of the United States. Under that program, publicly owned wastewater treatment works must meet secondary treatment standards specified by law. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) generally delegates the authority to administer the NPDES program to individual states.
Under current law, the Point Loma Plant in San Diego, California, can apply to be exempted from secondary treatment standards if it meets certain conditions. H.R. 587 would eliminate the need for an application and would allow that exemption under the plant’s normal NPDES permit if it meets additional conditions that include implementing pretreatment and water reuse programs and providing ocean monitoring data and analysis to EPA.
Using information from EPA, CBO estimates that implementing the bill would have an insignificant effect on EPA’s costs to administer the NPDES program over the 2021-2026 period. CBO expects that the agency’s costs to administer the Point Loma Plant secondary treatment standard waiver would shift to administering and evaluating its performance under the NPDES permit.
