The Legislature hereby finds that there are one or more public trusts having the State of Oklahoma as beneficiary which hold permits issued under the National Pollution Discharge Elimination System (NPDES), pursuant to the Federal Water Pollution Control Act, as amended by the Federal Clean Water Act, 33 U.S.C., Section 1251 et seq. In some instances, the state beneficiary public trust holding the NPDES permit receives waste water streams from third parties into a central waste water treatment system owned and operated by the public trust, and treats the commingled waste streams in the central waste water treatment system before discharging the resulting effluent pursuant to an NPDES permit into navigable waters of the United States of America located in this state. A state beneficiary public trust such as described in the preceding sentence hereof shall be referred to in this act as a "Central Treatment Trust", or a "CTT". The Legislature finds that there is uncertainty as to whether treatment facilities owned and operated by a CTT constitute "treatment works" that are publicly owned within the meaning of 33 U.S.C., Sections 1292 and 1317(b). The Legislature declares that there is a need to provide a mechanism for resolving this uncertainty. The Legislature further declares that a CTT should have the authority to make the election provided for in Section 3 of this act, whereupon for purposes of owning and operating its waste water treatment facilities only, such a CTT shall have the powers granted to it by Section 4 of this act, and in conjunction therewith, the Department of Environmental Quality, subsequently referred to in this act as "Department", shall exercise the powers granted to it pursuant to Sections 4 and 5 of this act.
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