RS22878
Clean Water Act: Legislation Concerning Discharges from Recreational Boats
September 17, 2008

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Summary:

The Environmental Protection Agency is attempting to develop a regulatory response to a 2006 federal court ruling that vacated a long-standing rule that exempts discharges associated with the normal operation of vessels from permit requirements of the Clean Water Act. Concern that this ruling could require millions of recreational boaters to obtain permits has led to the introduction of legislation to exempt these and other types of vessels from water quality regulation. This report discusses background to the issue; bills introduced in response, two of which were passed by Congress on July 22 (S. 2766 and S. 3298); and draft permits proposed by EPA on June 17. In the 110th Congress, legislation concerning the applicability of certain environmental regulatory requirements to recreational and other types of boats has been introduced. Two bills are titled the Clean Boating Act of 2008 (S. 2766 and H.R. 5949). Legislation titled the Recreational Boating Act of 2007 also has been introduced (S. 2067 and H.R. 25501). Two other bills are the Vessel Discharge Evaluation and Review Act (S. 2645 and H.R. 55942). Two other measures concerned just with non-recreational boats are S. 3298 and H.R. 6556. As discussed below, Congress passed two of these bills, S. 2766 and S. 3298, on July 22, and President Bush subsequently signed them into law. These bills are intended to address an issue that has arisen in implementation of the Clean Water Act (CWA). In 2006, a federal court ordered the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to revise a CWA regulation that currently exempts discharges from the normal operation of all vessels from the act's permit requirements.3 The bills seek to exempt an estimated 13 million recreational and other vessels from new rules that EPA