The Clean Water Act (CWA) authorizes the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to establish drinking water intake no discharge zones upon application by a State. Within these zones, the discharge of sewage from a vessel, whether treated or untreated, is prohibited. These no discharge zones protect the quality of public drinking water supplies in those areas by decreasing the possibility of contamination from sewage discharged from vessels. This provision was added to section 312 of the Clean Water Act in 1977, after EPA had promulgated regulations on application requirements for other types of no discharge zones. Before today, EPA had not promulgated regulations specific to application requirements for drinking water intake no discharge zones under the CWA. Applicants for drinking water intake zones, therefore, have followed application requirements which are not tailored to drinking water intakes, and have provided more information than needed for these no discharge zones. Today, EPA is promulgating application requirements specific to drinking water intake no discharge zones. The effect of today's rule would be to more specifically tailor the type of information required in an application for a drinking water intake no discharge zone and reduce the amount of information a State must submit.