Water Quality Board Amendments

The Board's power to issue final orders establishing penalties was removed and replaced with the authority to conduct mediated settlement conferences and recommend penalty amounts to the Director.

The Board's review authority is now limited specifically to 'publicly-owned alleged violators,' whereas the original text applied to any alleged violator.

The criteria for Board review were changed to require that the Director's proposed penalty exceeds $25,000, and the timeline for the conference was adjusted to occur between 45 and 90 days after the request.

The nature of the Board's action changed from 'reviewing settlement negotiations' to 'conducting a mediated settlement conference,' altering the procedural mechanism for dispute resolution.

The deadline for the Board to issue a final order was removed, replaced by a requirement to recommend a penalty within 30 days of the conference, with the Director retaining the power to commence civil proceedings to prevent statute of limitations issues.