Okla. Stat. tit. 27A, § 27A-1012: Legislative findings and declarations

The Legislature hereby finds that there are one or more public

trusts having the State of Oklahoma as beneficiary which hold

permits issued under the National Pollution Discharge Elimination

System (NPDES), pursuant to the Federal Water Pollution Control Act,

as amended by the Federal Clean Water Act, 33 U.S.C., Section 1251

et seq. In some instances, the state beneficiary public trust

holding the NPDES permit receives waste water streams from third

parties into a central waste water treatment system owned and

operated by the public trust, and treats the commingled waste

streams in the central waste water treatment system before

discharging the resulting effluent pursuant to an NPDES permit into

navigable waters of the United States of America located in this

state. A state beneficiary public trust such as described in the

preceding sentence hereof shall be referred to in this act as a

"Central Treatment Trust", or a "CTT". The Legislature finds that

there is uncertainty as to whether treatment facilities owned and

operated by a CTT constitute "treatment works" that are publicly

owned within the meaning of 33 U.S.C., Sections 1292 and 1317(b).

The Legislature declares that there is a need to provide a mechanism

for resolving this uncertainty. The Legislature further declares

that a CTT should have the authority to make the election provided

for in Section 3 of this act, whereupon for purposes of owning and

operating its waste water treatment facilities only, such a CTT

shall have the powers granted to it by Section 4 of this act, and in

conjunction therewith, the Department of Environmental Quality,

subsequently referred to in this act as "Department", shall exercise

the powers granted to it pursuant to Sections 4 and 5 of this act.