II 

114TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION S. 611 

To amend the Safe Drinking Water Act to reauthorize technical assistance 

to small public water systems, and for other purposes. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

FEBRUARY 27, 2015 

Mr. WICKER (for himself, Ms. HEITKAMP, Mr. BOOZMAN, Mr. CRAPO, Mr. 

RISCH, Mr. FRANKEN, Mr. MORAN, Mr. SCHATZ, Ms. KLOBUCHAR, Mr. 

BARRASSO, Mr. ENZI, Ms. HIRONO, Mr. BLUNT, Mr. TESTER, Mr. BENNET, and Mr. INHOFE) introduced the following bill; which was read twice 

and referred to the Committee on Environment and Public Works 

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— 


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1 (1) the Safe Drinking Water Act Amendments 

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

3 assistance for small and rural communities to assist 

4 those communities in complying with regulations 

5 promulgated pursuant to the Safe Drinking Water 

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

7 (2) technical assistance and compliance train8 ing— 

9 (A) ensures that Federal regulations do 

10 not overwhelm the resources of small and rural 

11 communities; and 

12 (B) provides small and rural communities 

13 lacking technical resources with the necessary 

14 skills to improve and protect water resources; 

15 (3) across the United States, more than 90 per16 cent of the community water systems serve a popu17 lation of less than 10,000 individuals; 

18 (4) small and rural communities have the great19 est difficulty providing safe, affordable public drink20 ing water and wastewater services due to limited 

21 economies of scale and lack of technical expertise; 

22 and 

23 (5) in addition to being the main source of com24 pliance assistance, small and rural water technical 


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1 assistance has been the main source of emergency 

2 response assistance in small and rural communities. 

3 SEC. 3. SENSE OF CONGRESS. 

4 It is the sense of Congress that— 

5 (1) to assist small and rural communities most 

6 effectively, the Administrator of the Environmental 

7 Protection Agency should prioritize the types of 

8 technical assistance that are most beneficial to those 

9 communities, based on input from those commu10 nities; and 

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

12 assistance initiatives work in small and rural com13 munities to the maximum benefit. 

14 SEC. 4. FUNDING PRIORITIES. 

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

16 U.S.C. 300j–1(e)) is amended— 

17 (1) by designating the first through seventh 

18 sentences as paragraphs (1) through (7), respec19 tively; 

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

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

22 through 2020’’; and 

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

24 ‘‘(8) NONPROFIT ORGANIZATIONS.— 


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

2 may use amounts made available to carry out 

3 this section to provide grants or cooperative 

4 agreements to nonprofit organizations that pro5 vide to small public water systems onsite tech6 nical assistance, circuit-rider technical assist7 ance programs, multistate, regional technical 

8 assistance programs, onsite and regional train9 ing, assistance with implementing source water 

10 protection plans, and assistance with imple11 menting monitoring plans, rules, regulations, 

12 and water security enhancements. 

13 ‘‘(B) PREFERENCE.—To ensure that tech14 nical assistance funding is used in a manner 

15 that is most beneficial to the small and rural 

16 communities of a State, the Administrator shall 

17 give preference under this paragraph to non18 profit organizations that, as determined by the 

19 Administrator, are the most qualified and expe20 rienced in providing training and technical as21 sistance to small public water systems and that 

22 the small community water systems in that 

23 State find to be the most beneficial and effec24 tive. 


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1 ‘‘(C) LIMITATION.—No grant or coopera2 tive agreement provided or otherwise made 

3 available under this section may be used for liti4 gation pursuant to section 1449.’’. 

Æ 


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