[Congressional Bills 113th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 5659 Introduced in House (IH)]

113th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                H. R. 5659

  To reduce Federal, State, and local costs of providing high-quality 
 drinking water to millions of Americans residing in rural communities 
 by facilitating greater use of cost-effective well water systems, and 
                          for other purposes.


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                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                           September 18, 2014

 Mr. Stutzman introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
 Committee on Energy and Commerce, and in addition to the Committee on 
Agriculture, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, 
 in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the 
                jurisdiction of the committee concerned

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
  To reduce Federal, State, and local costs of providing high-quality 
 drinking water to millions of Americans residing in rural communities 
 by facilitating greater use of cost-effective well water systems, 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. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Water Supply Cost Savings Act'' or 
the ``Savings Act''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    Congress finds that--
            (1) the United States is facing a drinking water 
        infrastructure funding crisis; the Environmental Protection 
        Agency (the ``EPA'') projects a $384 billion shortfall in 
        funding over the next 20 years; and this funding challenge is 
        particularly acute in rural America;
            (2) there are 52,000 community water systems in the United 
        States, of which 41,801 are small community water systems;
            (3) EPA's most recent Drinking Water Needs Survey placed 
        the shortfall in drinking water infrastructure funding for 
        small communities (3,300 or fewer persons) at $64.5 billion;
            (4) small communities often cannot finance the construction 
        and maintenance of drinking water systems because the cost per 
        resident for this investment would be prohibitively expensive;
            (5) drought conditions have placed significant strains on 
        existing surface water supplies, and many communities across 
        the country are now considering the use of groundwater and 
        community well systems to provide drinking water; and
            (6) 42 million Americans receive their drinking water from 
        individual wells, and millions more rely upon community well 
        systems for their drinking water.

SEC. 3. SENSE OF CONGRESS.

    It is the sense of the Congress that--
            (1) providing rural communities with the knowledge and 
        resources necessary to fully utilize wells and community well 
        systems can save local, State, and Federal governments and 
        taxpayers billions of dollars over the next two decades;
            (2) wells and community well systems can provide safe and 
        affordable drinking water to millions of Americans; and
            (3) the Federal Government lacks the resources to finance 
        the drinking water infrastructure needs of millions of citizens 
        residing in rural America, and wells and community well systems 
        can help significantly to close this funding gap.

SEC. 4. DRINKING WATER TECHNOLOGY CLEARINGHOUSE.

    The Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency and the 
Secretary of Agriculture shall--
            (1) update existing programs of the Agency and the 
        Department of Agriculture designed to provide drinking water 
        technical assistance to include information on cost-effective, 
        innovative, and alternative drinking water delivery systems, 
        including systems that are supported by wells; and
            (2) disseminate information on the cost effectiveness of 
        wells and well systems to communities and not-for-profit 
        organizations seeking Federal funding for drinking water 
        systems serving 3,300 or fewer persons.

SEC. 5. WATER SYSTEM ASSESSMENT.

    In any application for a Federal grant or loan for a drinking water 
system serving 3,300 or fewer persons, a unit of local government or 
not-for-profit organization shall certify that it has considered, as an 
alternative drinking water supply, drinking water delivery systems 
sourced by publicly owned individual wells, shared wells, and community 
wells.

SEC. 6. REPORT TO CONGRESS.

    Not later than 3 years after the date of enactment of this Act, the 
Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency and the Secretary 
of Agriculture shall report to Congress on--
            (1) the utilization of innovative and alternative drinking 
        water systems described in this Act;
            (2) the range of cost savings for communities utilizing 
        innovative and alternative drinking water systems described in 
        this Act; and
            (3) the utilization of drinking water technical assistance 
        programs operated by the Agency and the Department.
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