I 

114TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 2853 

To amend the Safe Drinking Water Act to reauthorize technical assistance 

to small public water systems, and for other purposes. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

JUNE 23, 2015 

Mr. HARPER (for himself and Mr. TONKO) introduced the following bill; which 

was referred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce 

A BILL 

To amend the Safe Drinking Water Act to reauthorize technical assistance to small public water systems, 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. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Grassroots Rural and 

5 Small Community Water Systems Assistance Act’’. 

6 SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 

7 Congress finds that— 

8 (1) the Safe Drinking Water Act Amendments 

9 of 1996 (Public Law 104–182) authorized technical 

10 assistance for small and rural communities to assist 


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1 those communities in complying with regulations 

2 promulgated pursuant to the Safe Drinking Water 

3 Act (42 U.S.C. 300f et seq.); 

4 (2) technical assistance and compliance train5 ing— 

6 (A) ensures that Federal regulations do 

7 not overwhelm the resources of small and rural 

8 communities; and 

9 (B) provides small and rural communities 

10 lacking technical resources with the necessary 

11 skills to improve and protect water resources; 

12 (3) across the United States, more than 90 per13 cent of the community water systems serve a popu14 lation of less than 10,000 individuals; 

15 (4) small and rural communities have the great16 est difficulty providing safe, affordable public drink17 ing water and wastewater services due to limited 

18 economies of scale and lack of technical expertise; 

19 and 

20 (5) in addition to being the main source of com21 pliance assistance, small and rural water technical 

22 assistance has been the main source of emergency 

23 response assistance in small and rural communities. 

24 SEC. 3. SENSE OF CONGRESS. 

25 It is the sense of Congress that— 


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1 (1) to assist small and rural communities most 

2 effectively, the Administrator of the Environmental 

3 Protection Agency should prioritize the types of 

4 technical assistance that are most beneficial to those 

5 communities, based on input from those commu6 nities; and 

7 (2) local support is the key to making Federal 

8 assistance initiatives work in small and rural com9 munities to the maximum benefit. 

10 SEC. 4. FUNDING PRIORITIES. 

11 Section 1442(e) of the Safe Drinking Water Act (42 

12 U.S.C. 300j–1(e)) is amended— 

13 (1) by designating the first through seventh 

14 sentences as paragraphs (1) through (7), respec15 tively; 

16 (2) in paragraph (5) (as so designated), by 

17 striking ‘‘1997 through 2003’’ and inserting ‘‘2015 

18 through 2020’’; and 

19 (3) by adding at the end the following: 

20 ‘‘(8) NONPROFIT ORGANIZATIONS.— 

21 ‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—The Administrator 

22 may use amounts made available to carry out 

23 this section to provide grants or cooperative 

24 agreements to nonprofit organizations that pro25 vide to small public water systems onsite techVerDate Sep 11 2014 21:20 Jun 26, 2015 Jkt 049200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H2853.IH H2853

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1 nical assistance, circuit-rider technical assist2 ance programs, multistate, regional technical 

3 assistance programs, onsite and regional train4 ing, assistance with implementing source water 

5 protection plans, and assistance with imple6 menting monitoring plans, rules, regulations, 

7 and water security enhancements. 

8 ‘‘(B) PREFERENCE.—To ensure that tech9 nical assistance funding is used in a manner 

10 that is most beneficial to the small and rural 

11 communities of a State, the Administrator shall 

12 give preference under this paragraph to non13 profit organizations that, as determined by the 

14 Administrator, are the most qualified and expe15 rienced in providing training and technical as16 sistance to small public water systems and that 

17 the small community water systems in that 

18 State find to be the most beneficial and effec19 tive. 

20 ‘‘(C) LIMITATION.—No grant or coopera21 tive agreement provided or otherwise made 

22 available under this section may be used for liti23 gation pursuant to section 1449.’’. 

Æ 


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