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S. 1961, Chemical Safety and Drinking Water Protection Act of 2014 1 (June 5, 2014)

handle is hein.congrec/cbo1652 and id is 1 raw text is: CONGRESSIONAL BUDGET OFFICE
0COST ESTIMATE
June 5, 2014
S. 1961
Chemical Safety and Drinking Water Protection Act of 2014
As ordered reported by the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works
on April 3, 2014
SUMMARY
S. 1961 would amend the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) to require either the
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) or those states with primary enforcement
authority for public water systems to carry out a program to protect surface water from
contamination by chemical storage tanks.' Under this legislation, however, states would
have the option to not establish the proposed program; if states opt out of running the
program, then authority to implement it would revert to EPA.
Based on information from EPA, various state agencies, and experts in the storage tank
industry, CBO estimates that implementing this legislation would cost $114 million over
the 2015-2109 period, subject to the availability of appropriated funds. That estimate
assumes that all but about 10 state, tribal, or territorial governments would probably
implement their own programs to oversee chemical storage tanks. EPA would implement
the program with federal funds for state, tribal, or territorial governments that opt not to do
so. Enacting S. 1961 would not affect direct spending or revenues; therefore,
pay-as-you-go procedures do not apply.
S. 1961 would impose intergovernmental and private-sector mandates, as defined in the
Unfunded Mandates Reform Act (UMRA), on owners and operators of some chemical
storage tanks. Those owners and operators would have to meet requirements established by
EPA and states, including standards for construction, spill prevention, and emergency
response. Owners and operators also would have to comply with requirements for periodic
inspections. The cost of the mandates would ultimately depend on the minimum
requirements developed by EPA and states, but they would affect a large number of
entities. Only a small number of the chemical storage tanks owned by public entities would
be affected by the program's requirements; therefore, CBO estimates that the cost of
mandates for public entities would fall below the annual threshold established in UMRA
for intergovernmental mandates ($76 million in 2014, adjusted annually for inflation).

1. Under the SDWA, tribal governments and territories are treated as states.

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