1.This Act may be cited as the
Grassroots Rural Water Systems
Act
.
2.
(a)Congress
finds the following:
(1)The 1996
Amendments to the Safe Drinking Water Act authorized technical assistance for
small and rural communities to assist them with compliance with rules and
regulations promulgated under the Act. Technical assistance and compliance
training ensures that Federal regulations do not overwhelm small and rural
communities’ resources. It also allows small communities lacking technical
resources access to assistance necessary to improve and protect their water
resources.
(2)Under this
authorization, locally supported technical assistance initiatives have been
operating nationwide for the past three decades and have been the main source
of compliance and assistance for small and rural communities to meet federal
standards. Without these initiatives, effective implementation of the Safe
Drinking Water Act and Clean Water Act in rural areas would be nearly
impossible.
(3)Across the States,
over 90 percent of the community water systems serve a population less than
10,000. Small communities have the greatest difficulty providing safe,
affordable public drinking water and wastewater services due to limited
economies of scale and less technical expertise.
(4)In addition to
being the main source of compliance assistance, rural water technical
assistance has been the main source of assistance in emergency response in
small and rural communities. Rural water technicians were the lead assistance
in Greensburg, Kansas, in restoring the drinking water and sanitary sewer
service to that tornado-stricken small community (providing water to the
temporary hospital, housing units, and to the community in time). This was also
the case in the response to the hurricanes in the gulf coast where the hundreds
of small and rural communities relied on assistance from the local and
surrounding State rural water associations for immediate assistance in
restoring drinking water and sanitation service.
3.It is the sense of
the Congress that—
(1)to most
effectively assist small communities, the Environmental Protection Agency
should prioritize the type of technical assistance that small communities find
is the most beneficial;
(2)it is essential
for the agency to consider and prioritize the type and manner of technical
assistance that has the most support of each State’s local communities;
and
(3)local support is
the fundamental key to making the Federal funding (the Federal assistance
initiatives) work in small and rural communities to the maximum benefit.
4.Section 1442(e) of
the Safe Drinking Water Act (42 U.S.C. 300j–1(e)) is amended as follows:
(1)In the fifth
sentence by striking 15,000,000
and inserting
20,000,000
and by striking 1997 through 2003
and
inserting 2010 through 2015
.
(2)By inserting
(1)
immediately before the first sentence.
(3)By adding the
following new paragraph at the end thereof:
(2)The Administrator
may provide technical assistance, with funds under this subsection, to
nonprofit organizations providing on-site technical assistance, circuit-rider
technical assistance programs, on-site and regional training, assistance with
implementing source water protection plans, and assistance with implementation
monitoring plans, rules, regulations, and water security enhancements. To
assure technical assistance funding under this subsection is used in a manner
most beneficial to small communities in each State, the Administrator shall
give preference to nonprofit organizations that, as determined by the
Administrator, are most qualified and most effective, and have the majority of
support from small community water systems in the
States.
.