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Committee approves bill requiring large wastewater plants to post bypasses and test results online
Summary
The House Environment and Transportation Committee approved House Bill 1621 as amended, requiring wastewater treatment plants that discharge 50 million gallons per day to maintain a public website, post bypass/overflow/treatment-failure notices and begin testing within 24 hours of such events, with results posted online.
Chair Stein moved the committee to pass House Bill 1621 as amended, describing the measure’s new reporting and testing requirements: “As amended, this bill requires wastewater treatment plants that are authorized to discharge 50 million gallons of effluent per day to maintain a publicly accessible website and to publish certain information regarding any bypass, overflow, or treatment failure on the website.”
The amendment also requires such plants to begin required testing for specified constituents within 24 hours after a bypass, overflow, or treatment failure and to post the results of those tests on the site. Chair Stein moved and the committee adopted two amendments that narrowed some monitoring provisions and focused the bill on public posting and rapid testing as described.
During discussion, Delegate Healey asked whether the bill would affect wastewater treatment for the Washington, D.C., area. Chair Stein replied that the bill applies to Baltimore City’s wastewater treatment plants only: "This bill does not affect... it just affects Baltimore City's wastewater treatment plants." Delegate Anderson recorded a formal "no" on the final passage; no other formal vote tallies were recorded on the transcript. The committee approved HB 1621 as amended.
The bill will proceed per the House rules and any further floor action required by the House sponsor.
