The Tennessee General Assembly has approved landmark legislation that will reform the clarity and consistency of Tennessee's water quality standards.

The Responsible Water Coalition—an unprecedented alliance of business, agriculture, and elected officials, organized and led by Waller Lansden's Regulatory Affairs practice—worked with legislators, regulators, and the environmental community for two years to pass the legislation. The amended bill that ultimately passed the Legislature, SB 632/HB 1615, was the result of extensive negotiations between Waller Lansden, the Tennessee Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation (TDEC), and top lawmakers.

The legislation, sponsored by Sen. Steve Southerland, R-Morristown, and Rep. Joe McCord, R-Maryville, received overwhelming final approval on June 1 from the Tennessee House, 72-22, following a 26-3 approval by the state Senate two weeks earlier. The bill now goes to Governor Bredesen for his review.

According to the reforms:

  • The Tennessee Code will, for the first time, clearly define the difference between streams and wet weather conveyances, and the regulatory standards that apply to each.
  • While the regulatory standards applied to streams do not change, the bill requires, for the first time, that a stream, by definition, contain water flowing through a watercourse. Regulators cannot find streams in sheet flow off a hillside, water moving through ditches, or in standing pools of water.
  • Property owners working in wet weather conveyances—that is, all water that is not a stream—will find, for the first time, the standards applicable to their projects inside the Tennessee Code.
  • All Tennesseans will have the opportunity to participate in a public rulemaking meeting before the Tennessee Water Quality Board to further clarify the distinction between streams and wet weather conveyances.
  • TDEC will issue guidance documents to the public, telling the public and regulated community how the new water quality standards will be enforced and establishing training and qualification standards for its enforcement staff.
  • The role of science—hydrology, biology, and the expertise of professionals—will play a new and heightened role in shaping wet weather and stream determination, by incentives to property owners to retain state-certified hydrologic professionals to ensure the regulatory status of waters on their property.

"Lawmakers did all this without changing the jurisdiction of state government over its waters, which ultimately brought responsible environmental interests aboard in helping to develop and pass the reforms," said Waller Lansden partner Tom Lee who led the coalition's efforts. "The regulated community always has said it can adapt to nearly any fair standard, so long as the standard is clear and consistently applied. This legislation accomplishes that."

Individual interests had tried for years to reform Tennessee's water quality enforcement. The Responsible Water Coalition united groups as diverse as bankers, homebuilders, road builders, farmers, and business owners to coordinate their messages, compile documentation and case studies, and communicate with lawmakers concisely and effectively.

"These reforms are deserving on their own merit," Lee said. "As a government relations strategy, however, the Responsible Water Coalition was necessary to make the reforms real. When representatives of the state's business, construction, and agricultural community worked together and engaged regulators and the environmental community responsibly, legislators understood the concerns we were raising were genuine and deserving of attention."

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