Under the act, all information obtained by the Division of Geology and Land Survey from the filed registration document shall remain confidential and shall not be released by the Division to the public or disclosed in response to any request. The Division may disclose in aggregate for any county the number of major water users and the amount of water used. The Division may disclose information obtained from the document in response to a subpoena or a court order, but the Division shall not disclose more information than necessary to comply with the subpoena or order. Any employee of the Division who purposely discloses confidential information shall be subject to disciplinary action by the Division and is guilty of a class A misdemeanor. This provision shall not apply to information obtained from major water users with respect to water withdrawn or diverted for use on agricultural land.

This provision is similar to HCS/HB 2669 (2024).

Under the act, any land application of industrial wastewater, industrial wastewater treatment sludge, and related process wastes, excluding certain animal agricultural wastes, shall be subject to a nutrient management technical standard, as described in the act. Sampling results shall be sent to the Department of Natural Resources. This provision shall not apply to land application conducted in compliance with a land application management plan approved by the Department.

The Clean Water Commission may exempt an entity from the requirement to obtain a fertilizer permit only if the entity is producing products that are commercially sold to an end user and have accurate labeling for each container.

Entities currently storing combined bulk fertilizers in storage basins shall not be exempt from any design requirements for agrichemical facilities established by rule when constructing new agrichemical facilities.

In order to receive an operating fertilizer permit, any point source or operating location seeking an operating permit for a commingled offsite industrial wastewater or wastewater residuals open storage basin or open storage vessel shall meet current design requirements for a wastewater treatment facility's design capacity.

The Department of Natural Resources shall require at least, but no more than, specific buffer distances between the nearest commingled offsite industrial wastewater or wastewater residuals open storage basin and any public building or residence as described in the act, from which a written agreement for operation shall be obtained. Requirements for the written agreement are described in the act.

The Department shall require groundwater monitoring on a site-specific basis when, in the determination of the Division of Geological Survey, the commingled offsite industrial wastewater and wastewater residuals open storage basin or open storage vessel is located in proximity to a geological feature that increases the likelihood of groundwater contamination.

The Department shall establish by rule sampling requirements for commingled offsite industrial wastewater and wastewater residuals open storage basins or open storage vessels based on permitted materials. The Department shall, within 60 days of the effective date of the act, begin the rulemaking process, which shall include creating a chain of custody record form to be used by all parties during the handling of testing samples, and establish criteria to require monthly sampling and testing of any contents of any commingled offsite industrial wastewater or wastewater residuals open storage basin or open storage vessel, as described in the act. Testing shall be done by a third-party certified laboratory and results of the testing shall be sent to the Department by the laboratory annually.

This provision creates definitions for "agrichemical facility", " open storage basin", "open storage vessel", and "operating location".

This provision contains an emergency clause.

These provisions are identical to SS/SCS/HCS/HBs 2134 & 1956 (2024) and similar to SB 1369 (2024).

JULIA SHEVELEVA