IIB 

109TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 18

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

APRIL 13, 2005

Received; read twice and referred to the Committee on Energy and Natural 

Resources 

AN ACT

To authorize the Secretary of the Interior, acting through 

the Bureau of Reclamation and in coordination with 

other Federal, State, and local government agencies, to 

participate in the funding and implementation of a balanced, long-term groundwater remediation program in 

California, and for other purposes.
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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 ‘‘Southern California 

5 Groundwater Remediation Act’’. 

6 SEC. 2. DEFINITIONS. 

7 For the purposes of this Act: 

8 (1) GROUNDWATER REMEDIATION.—The term 

9 ‘‘groundwater remediation’’ means actions that are 

10 necessary to prevent, minimize, clean up, or mitigate 

11 damage to groundwater. 

12 (2) LOCAL WATER AUTHORITY.—The term 

13 ‘‘local water authority’’ means a currently existing 

14 (on the date of the enactment of this Act) public 

15 water district, public water utility, public water plan16 ning agency, municipality, or Indian Tribe located 

17 within the natural watershed of the Santa Ana River 

18 in the State of California. 

19 (3) REMEDIATION FUND.—The term ‘‘Remedi20 ation Fund’’ means the Southern California Ground21 water Remediation Fund established pursuant to 

22 section 3(a). 

23 (4) SECRETARY.—The term ‘‘Secretary’’ means 

24 the Secretary of the Interior. 
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1 SEC. 3. SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA GROUNDWATER REMEDI2 ATION. 

3 (a) SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA GROUNDWATER REME4 DIATION.—

5 (1) ESTABLISHMENT OF REMEDIATION

6 FUND.—There shall be established within the Treas7 ury of the United States an interest bearing account 

8 to be known as the ‘‘Southern California Ground9 water Remediation Fund’’. 

10 (2) ADMINISTRATION OF REMEDIATION

11 FUND.—The Remediation Fund shall be adminis12 tered by the Secretary, acting through the Bureau of 

13 Reclamation. The Secretary shall administer the Re14 mediation Fund in cooperation with the local water 

15 authority. 

16 (3) PURPOSES OF REMEDIATION FUND.—

17 (A) IN GENERAL.—Subject to subpara18 graph (B), the amounts in the Remediation 

19 Fund, including interest accrued, shall be used 

20 by the Secretary to provide grants to the local 

21 water authority to reimburse the local water au22 thority for the Federal share of the costs associ23 ated with designing and constructing ground24 water remediation projects to be administered 

25 by the local water authority. 

26 (B) COST-SHARING LIMITATION.—
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1 (i) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary may 

2 not obligate any funds appropriated to the 

3 Remediation Fund in a fiscal year until 

4 the Secretary has deposited into the Reme5 diation Fund an amount provided by non6 Federal interests sufficient to ensure that 

7 at least 35 percent of any funds obligated 

8 by the Secretary for a groundwater reme9 diation project are from funds provided to 

10 the Secretary for that project by the non11 Federal interests. 

12 (ii) NON-FEDERAL RESPONSI13 BILITY.—Each local water authority shall 

14 be responsible for providing the non-Fed15 eral amount required by clause (i) for 

16 projects under that local water authority. 

17 The State of California, local government 

18 agencies, and private entities may provide 

19 all or any portion of the non-Federal 

20 amount. 

21 (iii) CREDITS TOWARD NON-FEDERAL

22 SHARE.—For purposes of clause (ii), the 

23 Secretary shall credit the appropriate local 

24 water authority with the value of all prior 

25 expenditures by non-Federal interests 
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1 made after January 1, 2000, that are com2 patible with the purposes of this section, 

3 including—

4 (I) all expenditures made by non5 Federal interests to design and con6 struct groundwater remediation 

7 projects, including expenditures asso8 ciated with environmental analyses, 

9 and public involvement activities that 

10 were required to implement the 

11 groundwater remediation projects in 

12 compliance with applicable Federal 

13 and State laws; and 

14 (II) all expenditures made by 

15 non-Federal interests to acquire lands, 

16 easements, rights-of-way, relocations, 

17 disposal areas, and water rights that 

18 were required to implement a ground19 water remediation project. 

20 (b) COMPLIANCE WITH APPLICABLE LAW.—In car21 rying out the activities described in this section, the Sec22 retary shall comply with any applicable Federal and State 

23 laws. 

24 (c) RELATIONSHIP TO OTHER ACTIVITIES.—Nothing 

25 in this section shall be construed to affect other Federal 
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1 or State authorities that are being used or may be used 

2 to facilitate remediation and protection of the groundwater 

3 the natural watershed of the Santa Ana River in the State 

4 of California. In carrying out the activities described in 

5 this section, the Secretary shall integrate such activities 

6 with ongoing Federal and State projects and activities. 

7 None of the funds made available for such activities pursu8 ant to this section shall be counted against any Federal 

9 authorization ceiling established for any previously author10 ized Federal projects or activities. 

11 (d) FINANCIAL STATEMENTS AND AUDITS.—The 

12 Secretary shall ensure that all funds obligated and dis13 bursed under this Act and expended by a local water au14 thority, are accounted for in accordance with generally ac15 cepted accounting principles and are subjected to regular 

16 audits in accordance with applicable procedures, manuals, 

17 and circulars of the Department of the Interior and the 

18 Office of Management and Budget. 

19 (e) AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.— There is 

20 authorized to be appropriated to the Remediation Fund 

21 $50,000,000. Such funds shall remain available until ex22 pended. Subject to the limitations in section 4, such funds 

23 shall remain available until expended. 

24 SEC. 4. SUNSET OF AUTHORITY. 

25 This Act—
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1 (1) shall take effect on the date of the enact2 ment of this Act; and 

3 (2) is repealed effective as of the date that is 

4 10 years after the date of the enactment of this Act.

Passed the House of Representatives April 12, 2005. 

Attest: JEFF TRANDAHL, 

Clerk.