[Congressional Bills 114th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 611 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

114th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                 S. 611

     To amend the Safe Drinking Water Act to reauthorize technical 
   assistance to small public water systems, and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                           February 27, 2015

  Mr. Wicker (for himself, Ms. Heitkamp, Mr. Boozman, Mr. Crapo, Mr. 
Risch, Mr. Franken, Mr. Moran, Mr. Schatz, Ms. Klobuchar, Mr. Barrasso, 
   Mr. Enzi, Ms. Hirono, Mr. Blunt, Mr. Tester, Mr. Bennet, and Mr. 
    Inhofe) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and 
       referred to the Committee on Environment and Public Works

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
     To amend the Safe Drinking Water Act to reauthorize technical 
   assistance to small public 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 ``Grassroots Rural and Small Community 
Water Systems Assistance Act''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    Congress finds that--
            (1) the Safe Drinking Water Act Amendments of 1996 (Public 
        Law 104-182) authorized technical assistance for small and 
        rural communities to assist those communities in complying with 
        regulations promulgated pursuant to the Safe Drinking Water Act 
        (42 U.S.C. 300f et seq.);
            (2) technical assistance and compliance training--
                    (A) ensures that Federal regulations do not 
                overwhelm the resources of small and rural communities; 
                and
                    (B) provides small and rural communities lacking 
                technical resources with the necessary skills to 
                improve and protect water resources;
            (3) across the United States, more than 90 percent of the 
        community water systems serve a population of less than 10,000 
        individuals;
            (4) small and rural communities have the greatest 
        difficulty providing safe, affordable public drinking water and 
        wastewater services due to limited economies of scale and lack 
        of technical expertise; and
            (5) in addition to being the main source of compliance 
        assistance, small and rural water technical assistance has been 
        the main source of emergency response assistance in small and 
        rural communities.

SEC. 3. SENSE OF CONGRESS.

    It is the sense of Congress that--
            (1) to assist small and rural communities most effectively, 
        the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency should 
        prioritize the types of technical assistance that are most 
        beneficial to those communities, based on input from those 
        communities; and
            (2) local support is the key to making Federal assistance 
        initiatives work in small and rural communities to the maximum 
        benefit.

SEC. 4. FUNDING PRIORITIES.

    Section 1442(e) of the Safe Drinking Water Act (42 U.S.C. 300j-
1(e)) is amended--
            (1) by designating the first through seventh sentences as 
        paragraphs (1) through (7), respectively;
            (2) in paragraph (5) (as so designated), by striking ``1997 
        through 2003'' and inserting ``2015 through 2020''; and
            (3) by adding at the end the following:
            ``(8) Nonprofit organizations.--
                    ``(A) In general.--The Administrator may use 
                amounts made available to carry out this section to 
                provide grants or cooperative agreements to nonprofit 
                organizations that provide to small public water 
                systems onsite technical assistance, circuit-rider 
                technical assistance programs, multistate, regional 
                technical assistance programs, onsite and regional 
                training, assistance with implementing source water 
                protection plans, and assistance with implementing 
                monitoring plans, rules, regulations, and water 
                security enhancements.
                    ``(B) Preference.--To ensure that technical 
                assistance funding is used in a manner that is most 
                beneficial to the small and rural communities of a 
                State, the Administrator shall give preference under 
                this paragraph to nonprofit organizations that, as 
                determined by the Administrator, are the most qualified 
                and experienced in providing training and technical 
                assistance to small public water systems and that the 
                small community water systems in that State find to be 
                the most beneficial and effective.
                    ``(C) Limitation.--No grant or cooperative 
                agreement provided or otherwise made available under 
                this section may be used for litigation pursuant to 
                section 1449.''.
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