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103D CONGRESS

1ST SESSION H. R. 650

To amend title XIV of the Public Health Service Act (the Safe Drinking

Water Act) to clarify that review by the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency under section 1424(e) is mandatory, to improve interagency coordination in the protection of sole or principal

drinking water source aquifers, and for other purposes.

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

JANUARY 27, 1993

Mr. GONZALEZ introduced the following bill; which was referred to the

Committee on Energy and Commerce

A BILL

To amend title XIV of the Public Health Service Act (the

Safe Drinking Water Act) to clarify that review by the

Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency

under section 1424(e) is mandatory, to improve interagency coordination in the protection of sole or principal

drinking water source aquifers, and for other purposes.

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

3 SECTION 1. PROTECTION OF SOLE AND PRINCIPAL DRINK4 ING WATER SOURCE AQUIFERS.

5 Section 1424(e) of title XIV of the Public Health

6 Services Act (the Safe Drinking Water Act) is amended
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1 by deleting everything after the first sentence of that para2 graph and inserting the following in lieu thereof:

3 ‘‘After the publication of such notice, the Adminis4 trator shall review all projects referred to him by any Fed5 eral department, agency, or instrumentality under para6 graph (3) of this section, or referred to him by petition

7 or any other manner under this section, to determine if

8 they may contaminate any sole or principal drinking water

9 source aquifer through a recharge zone so as to create a

10 significant hazard to public health. If the Administrator

11 determines that a project may contaminate such aquifer

12 in such a manner, no commitment for Federal financial

13 assistance (through grant, contract, loan guarantee, or

14 otherwise) may be entered into for that project or for any

15 portion of that project. Federal financial assistance may,

16 if authorized under another provision of law, be entered

17 into to plan or design the project to assure that it will

18 not so contaminate the aquifer.’’.

19 Section 1424(e) of title XIV of the Public Health

20 Services Act (the Safe Drinking Water Act) is further

21 amended by inserting ‘‘(1)’’ after ‘‘(e)’’ and by adding the

22 following at the end thereof:

23 ‘‘(2) The Administrator shall, not less frequently

24 than annually, notify the office of each department, agen25 cy, and instrumentality of the United States designated
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1 under paragraph (3) of the requirements set forth in para2 graph (1). Such notice shall include a description of each

3 area identified under paragraph (1), together with a map

4 of the aquifer and a description and map of the recharge

5 zone for such aquifer.

6 ‘‘(3) Not later than 60 days after the enactment of

7 this paragraph, each department, agency, and instrumen8 tality of the United States subject to the requirements of

9 paragraph (1) shall designate an official within such de10 partment, agency, or instrumentality to be primarily re11 sponsible for compliance with paragraph (1) and for co12 ordinating such compliance with the Administrator. Not

13 later than 180 days after the enactment of this paragraph,

14 each such department, agency and instrumentality shall

15 by rule or order establish procedures for assuring timely

16 compliance by that department, agency, or instrumentality

17 with the requirements of paragraph (1). The rule or order

18 required under this paragraph shall include provisions as19 suring that department, agency or instrumentality will for20 ward to the Administrator, in a timely manner, a descrip21 tion of each project which may be subject to paragraph

22 (1), an assessment of whether or not the project poses a

23 risk to the sole source aquifer concern, and documentation

24 supporting such assessment. For purposes of this para-
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1 graph, the term ‘timely’ means at least 60 days before

2 any commitment of financial assistance is provided.’’.

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