I 

113TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 654 

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 

FEBRUARY 13, 2013 

Mr. HARPER (for himself, Mr. MATHESON, Mr. MCKINLEY, Mr. WESTMORELAND, Mr. JONES, Mr. NUNNELEE, Mr. FORTENBERRY, and Mr. THOMPSON of Mississippi) 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 


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1 assistance for small and rural communities to assist 

2 those communities in complying with regulations 

3 promulgated pursuant to the Safe Drinking Water 

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

5 (2) technical assistance and compliance train6 ing— 

7 (A) ensures that Federal regulations do 

8 not overwhelm the resources of small and rural 

9 communities; and 

10 (B) provides small and rural communities 

11 lacking technical resources with the necessary 

12 skills to improve and protect water resources; 

13 (3) across the United States, more than 90 per14 cent of the community water systems serve a popu15 lation of less than 10,000 individuals; 

16 (4) small and rural communities have the great17 est difficulty providing safe, affordable public drink18 ing water and wastewater services due to limited 

19 economies of scale and lack of technical expertise; 

20 and 

21 (5) in addition to being the main source of com22 pliance assistance, small and rural water technical 

23 assistance has been the main source of emergency 

24 response assistance in small and rural communities. 


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1 SEC. 3. SENSE OF CONGRESS. 

2 It is the sense of Congress that— 

3 (1) to most effectively assist small and rural 

4 communities, the Environmental Protection Agency 

5 should prioritize the types of technical assistance 

6 that are most beneficial to those communities, based 

7 on input from those communities; and 

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

9 assistance initiatives work in small and rural com10 munities to the maximum benefit. 

11 SEC. 4. FUNDING PRIORITIES. 

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

13 U.S.C. 300j–1(e)) is amended— 

14 (1) by designating the first through seventh 

15 sentences as paragraphs (1) through (7), respec16 tively; 

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

18 striking ‘‘1997 through 2003’’ and inserting ‘‘2014 

19 through 2019’’; and 

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

21 ‘‘(8) NONPROFIT ORGANIZATIONS.— 

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

23 may use amounts made available to carry out 

24 this subsection to provide technical assistance 

25 to nonprofit organizations that provide to small 

26 public water systems onsite technical assistance, 


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1 circuit-rider technical assistance programs, on2 site and regional training, assistance with im3 plementing source water protection plans, and 

4 assistance with implementing monitoring plans, 

5 rules, regulations, and water security enhance6 ments. 

7 ‘‘(B) PREFERENCE.—To ensure that tech8 nical assistance funding under this subsection is 

9 used in a manner that is most beneficial to the 

10 small and rural communities of a State, the Ad11 ministrator shall give preference under this 

12 paragraph to nonprofit organizations that, as 

13 determined by the Administrator, are the most 

14 qualified and experienced and that the small 

15 public water systems in that State find to be 

16 the most beneficial and effective.’’. 

Æ 


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