§1274. Watershed pilot projects

(a) In general

The Administrator, in coordination with the States, may provide technical assistance and grants to a municipality or municipal entity to carry out pilot projects relating to the following areas:

(1) Watershed management of wet weather discharges

The management of municipal combined sewer overflows, sanitary sewer overflows, and stormwater discharges, on an integrated watershed or subwatershed basis for the purpose of demonstrating the effectiveness of a unified wet weather approach.

(2) Stormwater best management practices

The control of pollutants from municipal separate storm sewer systems for the purpose of demonstrating and determining controls that are cost-effective and that use innovative technologies to manage, reduce, treat, recapture, or reuse municipal stormwater, including techniques that utilize infiltration, evapotranspiration, and reuse of stormwater onsite.

(3) Watershed partnerships

Efforts of municipalities and property owners to demonstrate cooperative ways to address nonpoint sources of pollution to reduce adverse impacts on water quality.

(4) Integrated water resource plan

The development of an integrated water resource plan for the coordinated management and protection of surface water, ground water, and stormwater resources on a watershed or subwatershed basis to meet the objectives, goals, and policies of this chapter.

(5) Municipality-wide stormwater management planning

The development of a municipality-wide plan that identifies the most effective placement of stormwater technologies and management approaches, to reduce water quality impairments from stormwater on a municipality-wide basis.

(6) Increased resilience of treatment works

Efforts to assess future risks and vulnerabilities of publicly owned treatment works to manmade or natural disasters, including extreme weather events and sea-level rise, and to carry out measures, on a systemwide or area-wide basis, to increase the resiliency of publicly owned treatment works.

(b) Administration

The Administrator, in coordination with the States, shall provide municipalities participating in a pilot project under this section the ability to engage in innovative practices, including the ability to unify separate wet weather control efforts under a single permit.

(c) Report to Congress

Not later than October 1, 2015, the Administrator shall transmit to Congress a report on the results of the pilot projects conducted under this section and their possible application nationwide.

(June 30, 1948, ch. 758, title I, §122, formerly §121, as added Pub. L. 106–554, §1(a)(4) [div. B, title I, §112(b)], Dec. 21, 2000, 114 Stat. 2763 , 2763A-225; renumbered §122, Pub. L. 109–392, §2, Dec. 12, 2006, 120 Stat. 2703 ; amended Pub. L. 113–121, title V, §5011, June 10, 2014, 128 Stat. 1327 .)

Editorial Notes

Amendments

2014-Pub. L. 113–121, §5011(1), struck out "Wet weather" before "Watershed" in section catchline.

Subsec. (a). Pub. L. 113–121, §5011(2)(A), in introductory provisions, substituted "to a municipality or municipal entity" for "for treatment works" and struck out "of wet weather discharge control" after "the following areas".

Subsec. (a)(2). Pub. L. 113–121, §5011(2)(B), substituted "to manage, reduce, treat, recapture, or reuse municipal stormwater, including techniques that utilize infiltration, evapotranspiration, and reuse of stormwater onsite" for "in reducing such pollutants from stormwater discharges".

Subsec. (a)(3) to (6). Pub. L. 113–121, §5011(2)(C), added pars. (3) to (6).

Subsecs. (c), (d). Pub. L. 113–121, §5011(3)–(5), redesignated subsec. (d) as (c), substituted "October 1, 2015," for "5 years after December 21, 2000,", and struck out former subsec. (c) which authorized appropriations to carry out this section.