I 
109TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 1540 
To amend the Safe Drinking Water Act to provide procedures for claims 
relating to drinking water. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
APRIL 8, 2005 
Mr. GARY G. MILLER of California (for himself and Mr. CALVERT) introduced 
the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Energy and 
Commerce, and in addition to the Committee on the Judiciary, for a pe-
riod to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for con-
sideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the com-
mittee concerned 
A BILL 
To amend the Safe Drinking Water Act to provide 
procedures for claims relating to drinking water. 
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 ‘‘Drinking Water Stand-
ards Preservation Act of 2005’’. 
SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 
The Congress finds the following:
(1) The safety of drinking water, and the ade-
quacy of water supplies, is a national concern. In the 
29 years since Congress first mandated the estab-
lishment of uniform national minimum drinking 
water standards, national standards have been es-
tablished for more than 100 contaminants and pa-
rameters. 
(2) The States have been authorized to enforce 
those standards, and, in appropriate cases, set 
stricter standards on a statewide basis. 
(3) It is technologically infeasible for a drinking 
water system to provide water with a zero level of 
contaminants, and a determination that drinking 
water must contain no contaminants would threaten 
the adequacy of water supplies. 
(4) The setting of drinking water standards is 
a complex public policy determination requiring a 
careful analysis and balancing of a number of fac-
tors, including— 
(A) the maximum safe level for each drink-
ing water contaminant; 
(B) the technological capability of remov-
ing contaminants from public drinking water 
supplies; and
(C) the importance of assuring that drink-
ing water is affordable to all Americans. 
(5) The setting of these standards is not appro-
priate for individual juries deciding individual cases 
in the separate States, but rather is fundamentally 
a scientific issue to be resolved by the appropriate 
Federal and State agencies in accordance with the 
rulemaking provisions of the Safe Drinking Water 
Act and the applicable State authorities. 
(6) Claims for monetary damages brought 
against public water providers under the common 
law of the various States based on alleged contami-
nation of drinking water threaten to undermine the 
science-based uniform national system of water qual-
ity regulation. 
(7) The States should retain maximum flexi-
bility to handle claims for monetary damages 
brought against public water providers based on al-
leged contamination of drinking water, including the 
authority to decide whether such claims should be 
heard by the courts or an administrative agency. 
(8) The costs of defending against multiple 
legal claims can be financially burdensome to any 
water provider, but especially to small systems, and 
the imposition of such costs cannot be justified when
a supplier complies with the requirements of the 
Safe Drinking Water Act. 
SEC. 3. AMENDMENTS TO THE SAFE DRINKING WATER ACT. 
Section 1449 of the Safe Drinking Water Act (42 
U.S.C. 300j–8) is amended as follows: 
(1) In subsection (e)— 
(A) in the first sentence, by striking 
‘‘Nothing’’ and inserting ‘‘Except as provided in 
subsection (f), nothing’’; 
(B) at the end of the first sentence, by 
striking ‘‘or to seek any other relief’’; 
(C) in the second sentence, by striking 
‘‘Nothing’’ and inserting ‘‘Except as provided in 
subsection (f), nothing’’; and 
(D) by inserting after the first sentence 
the following: ‘‘Nothing in subsection (f) creates 
a new cause of action, and, except as otherwise 
explicitly provided in this title, nothing in this 
title expands liability otherwise imposed or lim-
its any defense otherwise available under Fed-
eral or State law.’’. 
(2) By adding the following new subsection at 
the end thereof: 
‘‘(f)(1) No public water system shall be liable in a 
civil suit brought before any Federal or State court for
damages arising from injury (including personal injury, 
death, or property damage) allegedly caused by delivery 
of contaminated water, unless the court determines that 
the plaintiff has established the following: 
‘‘(A) In the case of a regulated contaminant, 
the plaintiff must establish that each of the fol-
lowing criteria are met: 
‘‘(i) The substance in the delivered water 
which the plaintiff claims caused the injury was 
subject to a Federal or State regulation pre-
scribed under this Act at the time of delivery. 
‘‘(ii) There is substantial scientific evidence 
that the substance in the delivered water which 
the plaintiff claims caused the injury was of 
such a nature, and in such amounts, that it was 
reasonably likely to cause the kind of injury of 
which the plaintiff complains. 
‘‘(iii) The public water system violated the 
regulation referred to in clause (i). 
‘‘(iv) The violation was negligent. 
‘‘(v) The violation caused the injury. 
‘‘(B) In the case of an unregulated contami-
nant, the plaintiff must establish that each of the 
following criteria are met: