PLEASE NOTE: Legislative Information cannot perform research, provide legal advice, or interpret Maine law. For legal assistance, please contact a qualified attorney.
An Act To Amend the Laws Governing Waste Discharge Analysis by Laboratories Operated by Waste Discharge Facilities
Be it enacted by the People of the State of Maine as follows:
Sec. 1. 22 MRSA §567, sub-§1, as amended by PL 2017, c. 407, Pt. A, §68, is further amended to read:
 
1. Acceptable data.   Except as provided in this subsection, 6 months after the adoption of rules specified in subsection 2, certification is required of any commercial, industrial, municipal, state or federal laboratory that analyzes water, soil, air, solid or hazardous waste, or radiological samples for the use of programs of the department or the Department of Environmental Protection, except as provided under chapter 411, the Maine Medical Laboratory Act; Title 26, chapter 7, subchapter 3-A, Substance Use Testing; and Title 29-A, section 2524, administration of tests to determine an alcohol level or drug concentration.
 
A laboratory operated by a waste discharge facility licensed pursuant to Title 38, section 413 may analyze waste discharges for total suspended solids, settleable solids, biological or biochemical oxygen demand, chemical oxygen demand, pH, chlorine residual, fecal coliform, E. coli, enterococcus, conductivity, color, temperature and dissolved oxygen without being certified under this section. The exception provided under this paragraph applies to a laboratory testing its own samples for pollutants listed in its permit or license; pretreatment samples; and samples from other wastewater treatment plants for up to 60 days per year. The time period provided in this paragraph, which is a maximum period for each treatment plant for which analysis is provided, may be extended by memorandum of agreement between the Department of Environmental Protection and the Health and Environmental Testing Laboratory.
 
Effective 90 days following adjournment of the 129th Legislature, Second Regular Session, unless otherwise indicated.