Bill 657.

Summary.

The bill regulates domestic wastewater treatment systems in urbanizations, residential developments, neighborhoods, condominiums, mixed use projects and other real estate developments that generate such wastewater. Its purposes include protecting public health and water resources, preventing pollution and ensuring that treatment plants operate properly. It defines wastewater treatment plants, septic tanks, real estate developers, specialized operators and operating manuals.

A developer would be responsible for the plant’s proper functioning for a minimum of five (5) years from the competent authority’s final acceptance of the works. During that period, the developer would have to hire a certified operator, pay for preventive maintenance, conduct periodic laboratory analyses, keep technical records and submit semiannual reports. To obtain an occupancy permit, the developer would have to provide a financial guarantee reserved exclusively for plant operation and maintenance. The guarantee could take the form of a bank bond, performance bond, maintenance trust or another instrument approved by the competent authority. Each project would also have to establish a fund reserved for the system’s future operation.

Administration of the system could be transferred only to a legally constituted organization representing the owners, with the financial capacity to assume it and certification of the plant’s performance from MI AMBIENTES and the Ministry of Health (MINSA). The handover would include as built plans, operating manuals, maintenance history, an equipment inventory, warranties, permits and laboratory analyses for the last twelve months. Urbanizations outside the horizontal property regime that require a treatment plant would have to form a Users’ Association or a nonprofit administering entity devoted exclusively to the sanitation system. Its formation would be required before final project approval; the developer would continue operating the plant until the association met the technical and financial requirements.

Septic tanks could be authorized only where connection to a sanitation system is not feasible, population density and hydrogeological conditions are compatible, and the competent authority grants technical approval. Individual tanks would be prohibited in urbanizations exceeding regulatory density limits. Septic tanks could not be installed in flood prone zones, areas protecting water sources, protected aquifer recharge zones or environmentally sensitive areas. Tanks would undergo periodic inspections, and owners would document maintenance through certificates issued by authorized companies.

The Ministry of the Environment (MI AMBIENTE) and MINSA would inspect treatment plants, collective septic tanks and urbanizations. They could order repairs, improvements, equipment replacement, suspension of operations or immediate corrective measures. The bill identifies offenses involving inadequate maintenance, untreated discharges, altered records, failure to meet environmental parameters, failure to establish the maintenance fund and failure to provide technical documents. Possible penalties include fines, permit suspension or revocation, project stoppage, environmental remediation and enforcement of the financial guarantee. It provides for regulatory incentives for certain technologies, directs the Executive Branch to issue regulations within twelve months of promulgation, gives existing projects two years to comply, repeals conflicting provisions and would take effect the day after promulgation. Its provisions concern health and environmental authorities, developers, property owners, specialized operators and maintenance companies.