I 
109TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 2417 
To amend the Safe Drinking Water Act to establish a program to provide 
assistance to small communities for use in carrying out projects and 
activities necessary to achieve or maintain compliance with drinking 
water standards, and for other purposes. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
MAY 17, 2005 
Mrs. WILSON of New Mexico (for herself and Mr. UDALL of New Mexico) in-
troduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on En-
ergy and Commerce 
A BILL 
To amend the Safe Drinking Water Act to establish a pro-
gram to provide assistance to small communities for use 
in carrying out projects and activities necessary to 
achieve or maintain compliance with drinking water 
standards, and for other purposes. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Community Drinking 
Water Assistance Act’’. 
SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 
Congress finds that—
(1) drinking water standards proposed and in 
effect as of the date of enactment of this Act will 
place a large financial burden on many public water 
systems, especially those public water systems in 
rural communities serving small populations; 
(2) the limited scientific, technical, and profes-
sional resources available in small communities com-
plicate the implementation of regulatory require-
ments; 
(3) small communities often cannot afford to 
meet water quality standards because of the ex-
penses associated with upgrading public water sys-
tems and training personnel to operate and maintain 
the public water systems; 
(4) small communities do not have a tax base 
for dealing with the costs of upgrading their public 
water systems; 
(5) small communities face high per capita 
costs in improving drinking water quality; 
(6) small communities would greatly benefit 
from a grant program designed to provide funding 
for water quality projects; 
(7) as of the date of enactment of this Act, 
there is no Federal program in effect that ade-
quately meets the needs of small, primarily rural
communities with respect to public water systems; 
and 
(8) since new, more protective arsenic drinking 
water standards proposed by the Clinton and Bush 
administrations, respectively, are expected to be im-
plemented in 2006, the grant program established 
by the amendment made by this Act should be im-
plemented in a manner that ensures that the imple-
mentation of those new standards is not delayed. 
SEC. 3. ASSISTANCE FOR SMALL PUBLIC WATER SYSTEMS. 
(a) 
DEFINITION
OF
INDIAN
TRIBE.—Section 
1401(14) of the Safe Drinking Water Act (42 U.S.C. 
300f(14)) is amended in the second sentence by striking 
‘‘1452,’’ and inserting ‘‘1452 and part G,’’. 
(b) ESTABLISHMENT
OF
PROGRAM.—The Safe 
Drinking Water Act (42 U.S.C. 300f et seq.) is amended 
by adding at the end the following: 
‘‘PART G—ASSISTANCE FOR SMALL PUBLIC 
WATER SYSTEMS 
‘‘SEC. 1471. DEFINITIONS. 
‘‘In this part: 
‘‘(1) ELIGIBLE ACTIVITY.— 
‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—The term ‘eligible ac-
tivity’ means a project or activity concerning a 
small public water system that is carried out by
an eligible entity to comply with drinking water 
standards. 
‘‘(B) INCLUSIONS.—The term ‘eligible ac-
tivity’ includes— 
‘‘(i) obtaining technical assistance; 
and 
‘‘(ii) training and certifying operators 
of small public water systems. 
‘‘(C) EXCLUSION.—The term ‘eligible ac-
tivity’ does not include any project or activity to 
increase the population served by a small public 
water system, except to the extent that the Ad-
ministrator determines such a project or activ-
ity to be necessary to— 
‘‘(i) achieve compliance with a na-
tional primary drinking water regulation; 
and 
‘‘(ii) provide a water supply to a pop-
ulation that, as of the date of enactment of 
this part, is not served by a safe public 
water system. 
‘‘(2) ELIGIBLE ENTITY.—The term ‘eligible en-
tity’ means a small public water system that— 
‘‘(A) is located in a State or an area gov-
erned by an Indian Tribe; and