"Clean Water Legacy Act"; providing for the protection, restoration and
preservation of the quality of surface waters in the state to conform to certain federal requirements; defining certain terms; specifying certain coordination and cooperation requirements of public agencies responsible for local water management, conservation, land use and management and development plans; specifying certain implementation goals and policies; requiring the pollution control agency to set priorities for identifying impaired waters and the clean water council to recommend priorities for scheduling and preparing total maximum daily loads and priorities for restoration of impaired waters, specifying certain consideration requirements; specifying certain administrative duties of the PCA relating to development and approval of TMDLs; establishing a clean water council for administration and implementation advice purposes, specifying certain membership requirements and duties, requiring biennial reports to the legislature; providing for public and stakeholder participation in the identification and restoration of impaired waters; requiring council use of certain scientific expertise and development of strategies to inform, educate and encourage participation; imposing a temporary clean water fee on discharges of domestic and industrial wastewater to sanitary sewer, waste treatment, individual sewage treatment and other systems, providing for calculation, collection and enforcement, requiring fees collected to be periodically forwarded to the commissioner of revenue; creating the clean water legacy account in the environmental fund for deposit of the fees, specifying certain authorized uses; requiring and providing for the public facilities authority to establish a clean water legacy capital improvement fund for grants to governmental units for the capital costs of wastewater treatment facility projects to reduce the discharge of total phosphorus, specifying certain project eligibility requirements, eligible costs and grant amounts and priorities, authorizing the authority to charge grant recipients a fee for administrative costs, limit; requiring the authority to establish a community septic system replacement fund for loans to governmental units for projects to replace failing or inadequate ISTSs, specifying certain project proposal and loan application and award requirements, authorizing deferment of local special assessments to repay the loans; appropriating money to the department of revenue for fee collection costs, to the PCA for certain county assistance, assessment and TMDL development costs, to the department of agriculture for agriculture best management practices low interest loans to producers and rural landowners, for technical assistance to producers and conservation professionals on nutrient and pasture management and for research, evaluation and effectiveness monitoring of agricultural practices in restoring impaired waters, to the board of water and soil resources (BOWSR) for certain restoration and prevention actions, for targeted nonpoint restoration cost share and incentive payments and assistance, for evaluation of applied soil and water conservation practices and for county ISTS program and certain other grants, to the department of natural resources (DNR) for statewide assessment of surface water quality and for restoration of impaired waters and to the public facilities authority for clean water legacy capital improvement grants, for community septic system replacement loans and
for wastewater treatment and stormwater projects
(ra)