A. Will use the mercury only for medical, dental amalgam dispose-caps, or research or manufacturing purposes;

Sec. 15. 38 MRSA §1864, 2nd ¶, as enacted by PL 2001, c. 434, Pt. A, §7, is repealed.

Sec. 16. 38 MRSA §1865 is enacted to read:

§1865.__Public water supplies

If an infested water body pursuant to section 1864 is a public drinking water supply, public notification by the commissioner and the Commissioner of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife is required prior to any response action that proposes the use of a chemical control agent.__Public notification must include, at a minimum, notification of adjoining municipalities, property owners, drinking water suppliers who use that water supply and other affected persons, and must provide adequate time for public review and comment on the proposed emergency action.__Chemical control agents may not be used on a water body that is a public water supply without the prior written consent of each public water supplier using that water body.

SUMMARY

This bill makes the following changes to laws administered by the Department of Environmental Protection.

1. It reduces the frequency of reporting under the Clean Government Initiative. Under current law, the directors of the initiative are required to file a report with the Legislature every year. This bill moves to biennial reporting beginning January 1, 2006.

2. It gives the department authority to license categories of subsurface discharges by rule when the discharges will not have a significant adverse effect on the quality or classification of groundwaters of the State.

3. It changes the frequency of a public hearing requirement to accord with minimum federal requirements concerning hearings related to the review of water quality standards.

4. It corrects an error in the existing statute governing the water quality classification of the Dennys River Basin.