[Congressional Bills 106th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 3798 Introduced in House (IH)]







106th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                H. R. 3798

 To amend section 211 of the Clean Air Act to prohibit the use of MTBE 
as a fuel additive, to amend the Solid Waste Disposal Act to accelerate 
 the cleanup of MTBE released from leaking underground storage tanks, 
  and to amend the Safe Drinking Water Act to assist communities with 
 MTBE contamination in drinking water supplies, and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             March 1, 2000

   Mr. Forbes (for himself, Mr. Nadler, Mr. Owens, and Mr. Ackerman) 
 introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on 
                                Commerce

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
 To amend section 211 of the Clean Air Act to prohibit the use of MTBE 
as a fuel additive, to amend the Solid Waste Disposal Act to accelerate 
 the cleanup of MTBE released from leaking underground storage tanks, 
  and to amend the Safe Drinking Water Act to assist communities with 
 MTBE contamination in drinking water supplies, and for other purposes.

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

SECTION 1. AMENDMENT OF SECTION 211.

    (a) MTBE Prohibition.--Section 211(c) of the Clean Air Act (42 
U.S.C. 7545(c)) is amended as follows:
            (1) By adding at the end of paragraph (1) the following: 
        ``The Administrator shall amend the regulations under this 
        paragraph as promptly as practicable after the date of 
        enactment of this sentence to prohibit, by no later than 
        January 1, 2004, the use of methyl tertiary butyl ether (MTBE) 
        as a fuel additive.''.
            (2) By adding the following new subparagraph at the end of 
        paragraph (2):
    ``(D) The Administrator shall prohibit under paragraph (1) any 
additive in gasoline registered under subsection (a) after the 
enactment of this subparagraph unless it has been determined (through 
scientific testing and peer review) not to have any adverse effects on 
the public.''.
    (b) Savings Provision.--Nothing in the amendments made by this 
section shall be construed as changing the oxygenate requirements or 
emission standards set forth in the Clean Air Act.

SEC. 2. PREVENTION OF FURTHER LEAKS.

    (a) Monitoring.--Section 9005 of the Solid Waste Disposal Act is 
amended by adding the following new subsection at the end thereof:
    ``(c) Special Rule for MTBE.--Whenever any release has been 
detected from an underground storage tank, the Administrator (or a 
representative of a State with an approved program) shall require the 
owner or operator of the tank to conduct monitoring for methyl tertiary 
butyl ether (MTBE) and report the results of such monitoring annually 
to the Administrator (or such representative) for the longer of (1) a 
period of 10 years following the detection of the first such release, 
or (2) 3 years after the date on which the last release was 
detected.''.
    (b) Upgrading of Underground Storage Tanks.--In enforcing the 
requirement that underground storage tanks be upgraded in accordance 
with section 280.21 of title 40, Code of Federal Regulations, the 
Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency shall focus 
enforcement of the requirement on areas where MTBE is leaking into 
ground water or surface water.
    (c) Sense of the Congress.--It is the sense of Congress that--
            (1) the Administrator should prioritize its funds under the 
        Leaking Underground Storage Tanks (LUST) program (42 U.S.C. 
        6991 et seq.) to provide oversight, enforcement, and grants to 
        States in which MTBE has been used as a fuel additive; and
            (2) the Administrator should accelerate the currently-
        planned implementation of testing for and reporting of MTBE in 
        public water drinking water supplies to be completed by 
        December 2001.
    (d) Funding.--It is the sense of the Congress that all funds 
available in the Leaking Underground Storage Tank Trust Fund 
established under section 9508 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 
should be appropriated annually.

SEC. 3. EMERGENCY DECLARATION AND STUDY.

    (a) In General.--Part E of the Safe Drinking Water Act is amended 
by adding the following at the end thereof:

``SEC. 1459. EMERGENCY DECLARATION; STUDY.

    ``(a) Declaration.--Based on the request of a Governor or head of a 
local government, the Administrator is authorized to declare that a 
drinking water emergency exists in a county or municipality, or any 
part thereof, if the drinking water supplies for that county or 
municipality, or any part thereof, have been contaminated by methyl 
tertiary butyl ether (MTBE).
    ``(b) Grants.--Upon making a declaration under subsection (a), the 
Administrator is authorized to make, on an expedited basis--
            ``(1) grants to local government agencies to connect 
        persons using private wells that have been contaminated with 
        MTBE to public water systems where necessary to assure such 
        persons access to uncontaminated water;
            ``(2) grants to local government agencies to purchase 
        bottled water for residents unable to safely use the water 
        supply; and
            ``(3) grants to such agencies to remediate the municipal 
        water supplies, groundwater and surface water, and any other 
        natural sources that provide water to the community.
    ``(c) Study.--The National Institutes of Environmental Health 
Sciences (NIEHS) of the National Institutes of Health shall undertake a 
study of the long-term health effects of MTBE contamination in drinking 
water.
    ``(d) Authorization of Appropriations.--There are authorized to be 
appropriated to carry out this section $15,000,000 for the fiscal year 
2001 and such sums as may be necessary for fiscal years 2002 through 
2005.''.
    (b) Budget Offset.--For the fiscal year 2001, sums otherwise 
available under other authority of law for the Army School of the 
Americas in the Department of the Army shall be reduced by $15,000,000.
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