A. The Department of Environmental Quality shall receive, review, and evaluate permit applications for discharges to water bodies for water reuse projects. The Department shall approve such applications as comply with the applicable rules of the Environmental Quality Board for discharges to the waters of the State.
B. 1. Subject to subsection A of this section, the Department shall issue permits for point-source discharges into sensitive public and private water supplies, as defined by the rules of the Oklahoma Water Resources Board, where such discharges do not contain concentrations of pollutants greater than the existing concentrations of such pollutants in the receiving water body. The issuance of such permit by the Department shall not be considered a violation of the anti-degradation provisions of the State’s water quality standards.
2. Upon initial receipt of an application for a discharge permit that is for the purpose of developing and implementing a water reuse project, the Department shall acknowledge to the applicant in writing or by electronic mail the date that the Department received the application, thus initiating the period for administrative review of the application. The Department shall review the application in accordance with timelines for administrative and technical review adopted by the Environmental Quality Board.
3. Applications for point-source discharges into water bodies designated by the Oklahoma Water Resources Board as Sensitive Public or Private Water Supplies shall be considered Tier III permit applications under the Uniform Environmental Permitting Act.
Added by Laws 2014, c. 364, § 1, emerg. eff. May 28, 2014.