Plastic Pellet Free Waters Act
Summary
What This Bill Does
This bill directs EPA to issue a final rule within 60 days addressing plastic pellets and other pre-production plastic materials. The rule must prohibit discharges of those materials into wastewater, stormwater, runoff, or other pathways from facilities regulated under 40 C.F.R. parts 414 or 463, and from point sources that make, use, package, or transport those materials. EPA and state-delegated programs must reflect the prohibitions in wastewater, stormwater, and other Clean Water Act section 402 permits. Applicable Clean Water Act section 312(p) performance standards for relevant point sources must also incorporate the requirements.
Who Benefits and How
Waterways, coastal communities, municipal stormwater systems, fisheries, and environmental regulators benefit from a categorical discharge prohibition for plastic pellets before they enter wastewater, stormwater, runoff, or navigable waters.
Who Bears the Burden and How
Plastic polymer producers, molding facilities, plastic-pellet packagers, plastic-pellet transporters, EPA, and state-delegated permit programs must comply with or administer new discharge prohibitions, permit terms, and performance-standard updates within a compressed rulemaking timeline.
Key Provisions
- Directs EPA to promulgate a final rule within 60 days prohibiting plastic pellet and pre-production material discharges.
- Prohibits discharges from facilities regulated under 40 C.F.R. parts 414 and 463 and from point sources that make, use, package, or transport pellets.
- Requires EPA and state-delegated programs to include the prohibitions in wastewater, stormwater, and Clean Water Act section 402 permits.
- Requires applicable Clean Water Act section 312(p) performance standards to reflect the pellet-discharge requirements.
Evidence Chain:
This summary is generated from the full bill text using AI analysis. Expand "Detailed Analysis" below for identified beneficiaries/burden bearers with clause-level evidence links.
At a Glance
What This Bill Does
Requires EPA within 60 days to prohibit plastic pellet and pre-production plastic material discharges from regulated facilities and point sources and to put those limits into Clean Water Act permits and performance standards.
Key Policy Areas
Environment, Manufacturing, Water Infrastructure
Primary Purpose
Requires EPA within 60 days to prohibit plastic pellet and pre-production plastic material discharges from regulated facilities and point sources and to put those limits into Clean Water Act permits and performance standards.
Policy Domains
Substantive provisions
Identified Gains
- Waterways
- Coastal communities
- Municipal stormwater systems
- Environmental regulators
Identified Costs
- Plastic polymer producers
- Plastic molding facilities
- Plastic pellet packagers
- Plastic pellet transporters
- Environmental Protection Agency
- State-delegated permit programs
Sponsors
Legislative Progress
In CommitteeReferred to the Subcommittee on Water Resources and Environment.
Referred to the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure.
Introduced in House
Mr. Levin (for himself, Ms. Scholten, Ms. Davids of Kansas, …
Stakeholder Effects
cui bono?How this legislation distributes effects. Mention counts reflect frequency, not effect magnitude.
Plastic molding facilities, Plastic polymer producers
Bill Structure & Actor Mappings
Who is "The Secretary" in each section?
- "administrator"
- → Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency
We use a combination of our own taxonomy and classification in addition to large language models to assess meaning and potential beneficiaries. High confidence means strong textual evidence. Always verify with the original bill text.
Learn more about our methodology