WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Kevin Cramer (R-ND), a Senate Environment and Public Works (EPW) Committee member, joined Senator John Barrasso (R-WY) in reintroducing the Water Quality Certification Improvement Act, legislation to amend section 401 of the Clean Water Act by making key clarifications about the appropriate scope of review for a water quality certification and placing procedural guardrails and requirements on states as they process requests for certification to prevent future abuses.

“States like Washington and New York have abused the Clean Water Act process, denying projects for reasons outside its scope. Regulatory certainty is imperative to right-size the role of activist-driven states,” said Senator Cramer. “Our bill would place procedural guardrails and requirements on states as they process requests for certification in order to prevent future abuses.”

The Water Quality Certification Improvement Act would: 

  • Clarify that the scope of a section 401 review is limited to water quality impacts only;
  • Clarify that states, when evaluating water quality, can only consider discharges that would result from the federally permitted or licensed activity itself – not from other sources;
  • Require states to publish clear requirements for water quality certification requests;
  • Require states to make final decisions on whether to grant or deny a request in writing based only on water quality reasons; and
  • Require states to inform a project applicant within 90 days whether the states have all of the materials needed to process a certification request.

Senator Cramer advocated for this bill in a hearing on it in November of 2019.Click here to watch.

The legislation is also cosponsored by Senators Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV), Steve Daines (R-MT), Jim Inhofe (R-OK), Cynthia Lummis (R-WY) and Pat Toomey (R-PA). Representative David McKinley (R-WV) introduced companion legislation in the House of Representatives.