[Congressional Bills 106th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 1492 Introduced in House (IH)]







106th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 1492

  To amend the Safe Drinking Water Act to provide for parity between 
  private entities and public entities with respect to civil actions 
  against the entities that arise from the ownership or operation of 
                         public water systems.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             April 20, 1999

Mr. Gary Miller of California introduced the following bill; which was 
                 referred to the Committee on Commerce

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
  To amend the Safe Drinking Water Act to provide for parity between 
  private entities and public entities with respect to civil actions 
  against the entities that arise from the ownership or operation of 
                         public water systems.

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

SECTION 1. CIVIL ACTIONS AGAINST PUBLIC WATER SYSTEMS; PARITY BETWEEN 
              PUBLIC AND PRIVATE ENTITIES.

    Part E of the Safe Drinking Water Act (42 U.S.C. 300j et seq.) is 
amended by adding at the end the following section:

``civil actions against public water systems; parity between public and 
                            private entities

    ``Sec. 1459. With respect to a civil action commenced in Federal or 
State court against a private entity for a claim arising from the 
ownership or operation by the entity of a public water system, the 
action shall be dismissed in any circumstance in which the action would 
have been dismissed if the private entity were a public entity that, in 
the Federal or State jurisdiction involved, owned or operated the 
public water system. This section applies notwithstanding any other 
provision of Federal or State law.''.
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