Senate committee adopts amendment and advances bill letting DEQ permit seafood processing mixing zones with safeguards

On April 24, 2025, the Senate Committee on Natural Resources and Wildfire adopted an amendment (the A5 amendment) to House Bill 3814A and moved the bill to the Senate floor with a due-pass recommendation.

Committee staff summarized HB 3814A as authorizing the Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) and the Environmental Quality Commission to permit mixing zones for seafood-processing wastewater if permitting is consistent with public health protection; the bill requires site-specific best practices to prevent contamination and would take effect 90 days after adjournment sine die. The committee recorded that the A5 amendment replaces the word "required" with "prohibited" in a line of the printed bill and adjusts language to read, "notwithstanding any other provision of this chapter and except as prohibited by federal law." The amendment was adopted by voice vote and recorded ayes from Senator Taylor, Vice Chair Nash and Chair Golden.

Vice Chair Nash moved the bill to the floor as amended with a due-pass recommendation. The committee then voted; the motion passed with recorded ayes from Senator Groff, Senator Taylor, Vice Chair Nash and Senator Golden. The committee discussion noted that stakeholders along the coast and seafood industry representatives had worked with authors and staff in advance of the committee to resolve earlier concerns in the base bill.

After passage, members discussed who would carry the bill to the Senate floor. The committee noted Senator Brock Smith would carry the bill, and the committee later announced co-carriers Senator Brock Smith and Senator Weber had agreed to carry it to the floor.

The committee record shows no formal amendments beyond the A5 amendment adopted in committee and no recorded objections to advancing the bill to the floor.