Title: Small and Rural Community Clean Water Technical Assistance Act
Policy area: Environmental Protection

Summary:
Small and Rural Community Clean Water Technical Assistance Act
This bill amends the Federal Water Pollution Control Act (commonly known as the Clean Water Act) to authorize the Environmental Protection Agency to provide grants or cooperative agreements to qualified technical assistance providers for assisting publicly owned treatment works (POTWs) that are small (serving 10,000 individuals or fewer) or medium (serving no fewer than 10,001 and not more than 75,000 individuals) in size. The technical assistance providers must assist the POTWs in complying with the Act or obtaining financing under the Act for eligible projects. Assistance may be provided to POTWs through onsite technical assistance, circuit rider technical assistance programs, regional technical assistance programs, and onsite and regional training.

[Congressional Bills 115th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 5030 Introduced in House (IH)]

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115th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                H. R. 5030

    To amend the Federal Water Pollution Control Act to provide for 
            technical assistance for small treatment works.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                           February 15, 2018

  Mr. Harper introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
             Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
    To amend the Federal Water Pollution Control Act to provide for 
            technical assistance for small treatment works.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Small and Rural Community Clean 
Water Technical Assistance Act''.

SEC. 2. TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE FOR SMALL TREATMENT WORKS.

    (a) In General.--Title II of the Federal Water Pollution Control 
Act (33 U.S.C. 1281 et seq.) is amended by adding at the end the 
following:

``SEC. 222. TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE FOR SMALL TREATMENT WORKS.

    ``(a) Definitions.--In this section:
            ``(1) Qualified nonprofit small treatment works technical 
        assistance provider.--The term `qualified nonprofit small 
        treatment works technical assistance provider' means a 
        nonprofit organization that, as determined by the 
        Administrator--
                    ``(A) is qualified and experienced in providing 
                training and technical assistance to small treatment 
                works; and
                    ``(B) the small treatment works in the State finds 
                to be the most beneficial and effective.
            ``(2) Small treatment works.--The term `small treatment 
        works' means a publicly owned treatment works serving not more 
        than 10,000 individuals.
    ``(b) Technical Assistance.--The Administrator may use amounts made 
available to carry out this section to provide grants or cooperative 
agreements to qualified nonprofit small treatment works technical 
assistance providers to provide to owners and operators of small 
treatment works onsite technical assistance, circuit rider technical 
assistance programs, multi-State, regional technical assistance 
programs, and onsite and regional training, to assist the small 
treatment works in achieving compliance with this Act or obtaining 
financing under this Act for eligible projects.
    ``(c) Authorization of Appropriations.--There are authorized to be 
appropriated to carry out this section for grants for small treatment 
works technical assistance, $15,000,000 for each of fiscal years 2018 
through 2022.

``SEC. 223. TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE FOR MEDIUM TREATMENT WORKS.

    ``(a) Definitions.--In this section:
            ``(1) Medium treatment works.--The term `medium treatment 
        works' means a publicly owned treatment works serving not fewer 
        than 10,001 and not more than 75,000 individuals.
            ``(2) Qualified nonprofit medium treatment works technical 
        assistance provider.--The term `qualified nonprofit medium 
        treatment works technical assistance provider' means a 
        qualified nonprofit technical assistance provider of water and 
        wastewater services to medium-sized communities that provides 
        technical assistance (including circuit rider technical 
        assistance programs, multi-State, regional assistance programs, 
        and training and preliminary engineering evaluations) to owners 
        and operators of medium treatment works, which may include a 
        State agency.
    ``(b) Technical Assistance.--The Administrator may use amounts made 
available to carry out this section to provide grants or cooperative 
agreements to qualified nonprofit medium treatment works technical 
assistance providers to provide to owners and operators of medium 
treatment works onsite technical assistance, circuit-rider technical 
assistance programs, multi-State, regional technical assistance 
programs, and onsite and regional training to assist medium treatment 
works that are facing difficulty in achieving compliance with this Act 
or obtaining financing under this Act for eligible projects.
    ``(c) Authorization of Appropriations.--There is authorized to be 
appropriated to carry out this section $10,000,000 for each of fiscal 
years 2018 through 2022.''.
    (b) Water Pollution Control Revolving Loan Funds.--
            (1) In general.--Section 603 of the Federal Water Pollution 
        Control Act (33 U.S.C. 1383) is amended--
                    (A) in subsection (d)--
                            (i) in the matter preceding paragraph (1), 
                        by inserting ``and as provided in subsection 
                        (e)'' after ``State law'';
                            (ii) by redesignating subsections (e) 
                        through (i) as subsections (f) through (j), 
                        respectively; and
                            (iii) by inserting after subsection (d) the 
                        following:
    ``(e) Additional Use of Funds.--A State may use an additional 2 
percent of the funds annually allotted to the State under this section 
for qualified nonprofit small treatment works technical assistance 
providers (as the term is defined in section 222) and qualified 
nonprofit medium treatment works technical assistance providers (as the 
term is defined in section 223) to provide technical assistance to 
small treatment works (as the term is defined in section 222) and 
medium treatment works (as the term is defined in section 223) in the 
State.''.
            (2) Conforming amendment.--Section 221(d) of the Federal 
        Water Pollution Control Act (33 U.S.C. 1301(d)) is amended by 
        striking ``section 603(h)'' and inserting ``section 603(i)''.
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