Before issuing a national pollutant discharge elimination system permit for discharges from a publicly owned sewerage system, requiring and approving a long-term control plan for wet weather discharges from a publicly owned sewerage system, or enforcing the Federal Water Pollution Control Act as applied to publicly owned sewerage systems, the director of environmental protection, to the extent allowable under that act and regulations adopted under that act, shall consider all of the following, as applicable, notwithstanding any other provisions of this chapter to the contrary:

(A) Limitations on the ability of an applicant for a permit or of a permittee to pay for or to secure money to pay for a required project;

(B) An evaluation of the effectiveness and cost of a long-term control plan;

(C) An evaluation of the effectiveness and cost of specific wet weather flow control technologies;

(D) An evaluation of the impact of a long-term control plan on the environment as a whole and of the promotion of alternative control options that will minimize the impact on the environment;

(E) Reducing the economic impacts on an applicant for a permit or on a permittee, other state and local government entities, and residents of the state;

(F) Allowing for reasonable flexibility in the implementation of a long-term control plan when the plan would impose a disproportionate financial hardship compared to its environmental benefits;

(G) Giving preference, when proposed by an applicant for a permit or by a permittee, to control options that comply with the presumption approach performance criteria established in the combined sewer overflow control policy adopted under 33 U.S.C. 1342 and that demonstrate significant pollution reduction rather than mandating specific designs;

(H) Allowing adequate time and flexibility for implementation of the schedule specified in the long-term control plan when justified by a clear environmental benefit;

(I) Factors specified in the combined sewer overflow control policy adopted under 33 U.S.C. 1342 that may ease the financial burdens of implementing a long-term control plan, including, but not limited to, small publicly owned sewerage system considerations, the attainability of water quality standards, and the development of wet weather standards;

(J) All other requirements imposed on an applicant for a permit or on a permittee to undertake capital improvements under the Federal Water Pollution Control Act, the Safe Drinking Water Act as defined in section 6109.01 of the Revised Code, this chapter, Chapter 6109. of the Revised Code, or rules adopted under either chapter.

Added by 129th General AssemblyFile No.32, SB 22, §1, eff. 9/30/2011.