The department shall establish and periodically review interim discharge limits, based on procedures specified in rule, for each facility licensed under section 413 and subject to this paragraph. The discharge limits may not be less stringent statistically than the facility's discharge levels as of the effective date of this paragraph, except that the department shall take into account factors such as reduction in flow due to implementation of a wastewater conservation plan, seasonal variations and changes in levels of production. When the department has established an interim discharge limit for a facility, that limit is deemed to be the concentration discharged as of the effective date of this paragraph, and a facility shall comply with that interim discharge limit.

When considering an enforcement action in response to a violation of this paragraph before the department establishes an interim discharge limit for the facility, the commissioner shall consider factors such as reduction in flow due to implementation of a wastewater conservation plan, seasonal variations and changes in levels of production.

A person, firm, corporation or other legal entity that discharges mercury shall implement a mercury pollution prevention plan consistent with model plans developed by the department. The facility shall provide information concerning the status of implementation of the mercury pollution prevention plan to the department by December 15, 1999 and December 15, 2000, or on a later date as required by the department. A mercury pollution prevention plan must include monitoring for mercury as required by the department, and the monitoring information must be provided to the department.

This paragraph is repealed October 1, 2001.

C. A person, firm, corporation or other legal entity who, on January 1, 1971, was discharging any of the substances mentioned in this subsection in connection with an industrial process and, on or before December 31, 1971, filed with the board a statement indicating the amount of the substance so discharged on that date may not be considered in violation of this subsection as long as any

discharge of mercury by that person, firm, corporation or other legal entity is less than 454 grams, or one pound, per year after January 1, 2000 and less than 45 grams, or 0.1 pound, per year after January 1, 2002. This paragraph is repealed January 1, 2004.

D. Notwithstanding this subsection, whenever the commissioner finds that a concentration of 10 parts per billion of mercury or greater is present in any waters of this State or that danger to public health exists due to mercury concentrations of less than 10 parts per billion in any waters of this State, the commissioner may issue an emergency order to all persons discharging to those waters prohibiting or curtailing the further discharge of mercury and compounds containing mercury into those waters. These findings and the order must be served in a manner similar to that described in section 347-A, subsection 3, and the parties affected by that order have the same rights and duties as are described in section 347-A, subsection 3;.

E.__A person may not directly or indirectly discharge to a publicly owned treatment facility any concentration of mercury that contributes to the failure of the treatment facility to comply with effluent limits or applicable water quality criteria for mercury.__The owner of a publicly owned treatment facility may require any user of that facility to institute measures necessary to abate discharges of mercury to that facility.__Those measures may include, but are not limited to, testing to determine concentrations of mercury, institution of pollution prevention practices or the evaluation of raw materials, products or practices.__The owner of a publicly owned treatment facility may establish reasonable time schedules for completion of those measures.__ A person who does not comply with abatement measures required by an owner of a publicly owned treatment facility may be subject to enforcement actions taken by the owner of the facility and sanctions imposed by applicable municipal ordinances or section 349;

Sec. 2. 38 MRSA §420, sub-§2, as amended by PL 1997, c. 444, §7, is further amended by amending the first paragraph to read:

2. Toxic or hazardous substances. Any other toxic substance in any amount or concentration greater than that identified or regulated, including complete prohibition of such substance, by the board. In identifying and regulating such toxic substances, the board shall take into account the toxicity of the substance, its persistence and degradability, the usual or potential presence of any organism affected by such substance in any waters

of the State, the importance of such organism and the nature and extent of the effect of such substance on such organisms, either alone or in combination with substances already in the receiving waters or the discharge. As used in this subsection, "toxic substance" shall mean means those substances or combination of substances, including disease causing agents, which after discharge or upon exposure, ingestion, inhalation or assimilation into any organism, including humans either directly through the environment or indirectly through ingestion through food chains, will, on the basis of information available to the board either alone or in combination with other substances already in the receiving waters or the discharge, cause death, disease, abnormalities, cancer, genetic mutations, physiological malfunctions, including malfunctions in reproduction, or physical deformations in such organism or their offspring.

Sec. 3. Rules amended. Notwithstanding any other provision of Chapter 519 of rules adopted by the Board of Environmental Protection, that chapter is not repealed on October 1, 2001, but remains in effect until amended or repealed by further action of the board.

Emergency clause. In view of the emergency cited in the preamble, this Act takes effect when approved.

SUMMARY

This bill is reported out by the Joint Standing Committee on Natural Resources pursuant to Public Law 1999, chapter 500.

The bill represents the Department of Environmental Protection's recommendations on new ambient water quality standards for mercury. The bill repeals the existing mercury discharge limit of 10 parts per billion and replaces that with a prohibition on the discharge of mercury in any amount greater than that allowed by rules adopted by the Board of Environmental Protection. The bill also allows publicly owned treatment facilities to require dischargers to implement pollution prevention measures to reduce the mercury load while statewide, risk-based criteria are being developed. The bill also removes a sunset provision contained in the mercury discharge rules adopted by the Board of Environmental Protection.