§ 42-17.4-12. Renewal of operation permit - Public notice and hearing requirement. (a) Upon the department of environmental management's completion of a draft of a major Rhode Island Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (RIPDES) permit (as those terms are defined in the RIPDES Regulations effective March 1, 1993), the department of environmental management shall hold a hearing on the draft permit in accordance with the requirements of the RIPDES regulations. A notice of the hearing shall be published in a newspaper of general circulation within the city or town where said facility is located, at least thirty (30) days prior to the date of the hearing, at the hearing all persons interested shall be heard upon the matter of the facility's draft permit. Written notice, which may be a copy of the newspaper advertisement, shall be mailed to the wastewater-treatment facility whose permit is being heard, and to the board of certification of operators of wastewater-treatment facilities and, where applicable, to the parties specified in subsection (b) of this section at least twenty-one (21) days prior to the date of the hearing. The newspaper notice shall be published as a display advertisement using a type size at least as large as the standard type size used by the newspaper in its news articles, and said notice shall:

(1) Specify the date, time, and place of the hearing;

(2) Specify the date that the facility filed its license renewal application; and

(3) Indicate that language interpreters and interpreters for the hearing impaired will be made available upon notice to the facility forty-eight (48) hours prior to the hearing date.

(b) A copy of the notice of public hearing, as published, shall be sent by first-class mail or e-mail to the chief administrative officer of each city or town; to each member of the town or city council; and state representatives and senators of each city and town who represent an area that is located within two thousand (2,000) feet of the facility's perimeter.

(c) The public hearing shall have a qualified stenographer present or shall be recorded. The department of environmental management shall provide a copy of the recording, or the stenographer shall provide a copy of the transcript to the department of environmental management, division of water resources, and to the wastewater-treatment facility. Said transcripts or recordings shall be received no later than thirty (30) days after the hearing. The transcript or recording of the public hearing shall be available for inspection to the general public at the facility.

(d) No defect in the form of any notice under this section shall render any granting of licensure invalid unless the defect is found to be intentional or misleading.

(e) The costs of any notice, interpreters, stenographers, or transcripts, as required under this section, shall be paid directly by the wastewater-treatment facility.

(f) The above requirements are to be construed as minimum requirements.

(g) The above hearing requirements shall take effect as of January 1, 1996.

History of Section. (P.L. 1995, ch. 306, § 1; P.L. 2016, ch. 419, § 1; P.L. 2016, ch. 420, § 1.)