Mike Collins on Clean Water and Pollution: His PERMIT Act, His Bid to Repeal Coal-Plant Wastewater Limits, and Zeldin's Water Rule

Mike Collins wrote the PERMIT Act, which the House passed on December 11, 2025 (roll call 330) and which would increase the maximum permit term from five to ten years for water pollution permits and exempt farm stormwater from Clean Water Act permits; it awaits Senate action. In 2024 Collins introduced a resolution to overturn EPA's limits on toxic metals in coal-plant wastewater, saying the rule "sets unworkable and unattainable limits for coal-fired power plants"; Zeldin's EPA has since delayed that rule.

Collins also voted in 2025 to repeal the rule that kept the largest sources of hazardous air pollution under the strictest controls (roll call 143) and praised the Trump administration's proposal to narrow which streams and wetlands the Clean Water Act protects. In Georgia, energy researchers project the federal pollution and energy changes will raise Georgia’s healthcare costs by $1.5 billion.

Mike Collins's Bills, Votes and Statements on Clean Water and Pollution

• Collins Wrote the PERMIT Act, Which Would Exempt Farm Stormwater From Clean Water Act Permits and Double Permit Terms. Mike Collins wrote H.R. 3898, the PERMIT Act, and his office announced that the United States House of Representatives passed Rep. Collins' (R-GA) H.R. 3898, the PERMIT Act on December 11, 2025; Collins voted yes as it passed 221 to 205. In the Senate it was referred to the Committee on Environment and Public Works, where it is pending, so it is not law. The bill would increase the maximum permit term from five to ten years for Clean Water Act discharge permits, and it exempts from the CWA’s requirement to obtain an NPDES permit both (a) discharges of stormwater from farmland and (b) certain pesticide applications, according to the law firm Beveridge & Diamond; its text adds a section titled AGRICULTURAL STORMWATER DISCHARGE. Stormwater from fields is how fertilizer and manure reach rivers and drinking-water sources.
• Collins Sought to Repeal Limits on Arsenic, Mercury and Other Toxic Metals in Coal-Plant Wastewater; Zeldin's EPA Has Since Delayed Them. On May 21, 2024, Collins introduced H.J.Res. 151, a resolution to overturn EPA's Supplemental Effluent Limitations Guidelines and Standards for the Steam Electric Power Generating Point Source Category, saying the rule "sets unworkable and unattainable limits for coal-fired power plants". The resolution never passed either chamber. The wastewater the rule limits carries arsenic, lead, mercury, selenium, chromium, and cadmium. Under Administrator Lee Zeldin, EPA published a final rule extending compliance deadlines set by the 2024 limits in December 2025, and on May 18, 2026 EPA proposed a rule to revise the 2024 limits; the Institute for Policy Integrity at New York University lists the delay as putting $2.2 billion a year in net benefits and 112 premature deaths a year at risk.
• Collins Voted to Let Major Toxic Air Polluters Escape the Strictest Controls in May 2025. On May 22, 2025, Collins voted yes on S.J.Res. 31, which passed the House 216 to 212 and repealed the 2024 EPA rule that had kept major sources of hazardous air pollution under the strictest controls; On June 20, 2025, Congress repealed the 2024 rule using the Congressional Review Act, Harvard's Environmental and Energy Law Program records. With the rule gone, a major source can reclassify as an area source if it reduces its emissions below the threshold, which takes it out of the strictest federal standards for toxic air pollutants.
• Collins Voted for the Law That Took Back Unspent Money for Cleaner Diesel Engines and Clean Air at Schools, in July 2025. On July 3, 2025, Collins voted yes as the House passed the final One Big Beautiful Bill Act 218 to 214, after voting for the House version, which passed 215 to 214 with one member voting present, so it would have failed without his vote. The law includes a RESCISSION OF FUNDING FOR DIESEL EMISSIONS REDUCTIONS and a RESCISSION OF FUNDING TO ADDRESS AIR POLLUTION AT SCHOOLS, taking back money Congress had set aside in 2022 that had not yet been spent.
• Collins Praised the Proposal to Narrow Which Streams and Wetlands the Clean Water Act Protects, in November 2025. On November 17, 2025, Collins said the Trump administration's proposed definition of "waters of the United States" "will end the abuse of power by Washington bureaucrats and restore freedom to landowners". The proposal defines which streams and wetlands are protected by the Clean Water Act, and EPA and the Army Corps' own estimate is that as little as 19% of wetlands currently mapped by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service would remain regulated as adjacent wetlands; On Nov. 17, 2025, EPA and the Army Corps proposed a rule to update and narrow the definition, and it is not yet final.

What the Pollution Rollbacks Mike Collins Backed Mean for Georgia

• Health costs (projection). Energy Innovation projects that worsening air pollution from the One Big Beautiful Bill Act and other federal energy and pollution changes will raise Georgia’s healthcare costs by $1.5 billion; its Georgia model includes EPA's reconsideration of the Clean Water Act Effluent Limitations Guidelines for electric power plants, the coal-plant wastewater limits Collins tried to repeal.
• Community grants. In Georgia, About $40 million in Environmental Protection Agency Community Change and Environmental Justice grants were disrupted, including one stripped a $19.8 million Community Change Grant from Thomasville for a public health clinic and wastewater upgrades; in July 2026 the court ordered the EPA to bypass its internal freeze and resume administering the program, the Partnership for Public Service reports.

Frequently Asked Questions About Mike Collins on Clean water and pollution

Last updated: 2026-10-25

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