HB 2297 Summary

• Establishes criteria for county directors to determine catastrophic failure of wastewater treatment facilities, including when 50% of assets reach D-grade failure condition, failure poses imminent public health/environmental harm, and replacement costs exceed 25% of county budget.

• Authorizes counties to contract with private entities to design, build, and operate new wastewater treatment and resource recovery facilities as replacements for existing facilities when catastrophic failure is imminent.

• Requires consultation and negotiation with union representatives before implementing private contracts, mandates employee retraining or reassignment opportunities, and protects all previously earned employee rights and benefits.

• Expands the definition of "resource recovery facility" to explicitly include extraction and recovery of clean water, nutrients, fertilizer, renewable energy, gas, and other recoverable resources from solid waste.

• Exempts experimental modernization projects from state and county personnel laws during development while maintaining compliance with equal employment opportunity laws and collective bargaining requirements under chapter 89.