ID 

Union Calendar No. 264 

114TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION S. 611 

[Report No. 114–346] 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

JUNE 10, 2015 

Referred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce 

NOVEMBER 19, 2015 

Committed to the Committee of the Whole House on the State of the Union 

and ordered to be printed 

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A BILL 

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

11 those communities in complying with regulations 

12 promulgated pursuant to the Safe Drinking Water 

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

14 (2) technical assistance and compliance train15 ing— 

16 (A) ensures that Federal regulations do 

17 not overwhelm the resources of small and rural 

18 communities; and 

19 (B) provides small and rural communities 

20 lacking technical resources with the necessary 

21 skills to improve and protect water resources; 

22 (3) across the United States, more than 90 per23 cent of the community water systems serve a popu24 lation of less than 10,000 individuals; 

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1 (4) small and rural communities have the great2 est difficulty providing safe, affordable public drink3 ing water and wastewater services due to limited 

4 economies of scale and lack of technical expertise; 

5 and 

6 (5) in addition to being the main source of com7 pliance assistance, small and rural water technical 

8 assistance has been the main source of emergency 

9 response assistance in small and rural communities. 

10 SEC. 3. SENSE OF CONGRESS. 

11 It is the sense of Congress that— 

12 (1) to assist small and rural communities most 

13 effectively, the Administrator of the Environmental 

14 Protection Agency should prioritize the types of 

15 technical assistance that are most beneficial to those 

16 communities, based on input from those commu17 nities; and 

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

19 assistance initiatives work in small and rural com20 munities to the maximum benefit. 

21 SEC. 4. FUNDING PRIORITIES. 

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

23 U.S.C. 300j–1(e)) is amended— 

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1 (1) by designating the first through seventh 

2 sentences as paragraphs (1) through (7), respec3 tively; 

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

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

6 through 2020’’; and 

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

8 ‘‘(8) NONPROFIT ORGANIZATIONS.— 

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

10 may use amounts made available to carry out 

11 this section to provide grants or cooperative 

12 agreements to nonprofit organizations that pro13 vide to small public water systems onsite tech14 nical assistance, circuit-rider technical assist15 ance programs, multistate, regional technical 

16 assistance programs, onsite and regional train17 ing, assistance with implementing source water 

18 protection plans, and assistance with imple19 menting monitoring plans, rules, regulations, 

20 and water security enhancements. 

21 ‘‘(B) PREFERENCE.—To ensure that tech22 nical assistance funding is used in a manner 

23 that is most beneficial to the small and rural 

24 communities of a State, the Administrator shall 

25 give preference under this paragraph to nonmstockstill on DSK4VPTVN1PROD with BILLS

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1 profit organizations that, as determined by the 

2 Administrator, are the most qualified and expe3 rienced in providing training and technical as4 sistance to small public water systems and that 

5 the small community water systems in that 

6 State find to be the most beneficial and effec7 tive. 

8 ‘‘(C) LIMITATION.—No grant or coopera9 tive agreement provided or otherwise made 

10 available under this section may be used for liti11 gation pursuant to section 1449.’’. 

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Union Calendar No. 264 

114TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION S. 611 

[Report No. 114–346] 

A BILL 

To amend the Safe Drinking Water Act to reausystems, and for other purposes. thorize technical assistance to small public water 

NOVEMBER 19, 2015 

Committed to the Committee of the Whole House on the 

State of the Union and ordered to be printed 

mstockstill on DSK4VPTVN1PROD with BILLS