Records and inspections

Whoever fails or refuses to comply with any requirement of subsection (a) or to allow the Administrator, the Comptroller General, or representatives of either, to enter and conduct any audit or inspection authorized by subsection (b) shall be subject to a civil penalty of not to exceed $25,000. For purposes of this section, (1) the term “grantee” means any person who applies for or receives financial assistance, by grant, contract, or loan guarantee under this subchapter, and (2) the term “person” includes a Federal agency. The Administrator may utilize the authorities of this section for purposes of part F. Any person who manufactures, imports, sells, or distributes drinking water coolers in interstate commerce shall be treated as a supplier of water for purposes of applying the provisions of this section in the case of persons subject to part F. Not later than 3 years after August 6, 1996, the Administrator shall assemble and maintain a national drinking water contaminant occurrence data base, using information on the occurrence of both regulated and unregulated contaminants in public water systems obtained under subsection (a)(1)(A) or subsection (a)(2) and reliable information from other public and private sources. In establishing the occurrence data base, the Administrator shall solicit recommendations from the Science Advisory Board, the States, and other interested parties concerning the development and maintenance of a national drinking water contaminant occurrence data base, including such issues as the structure and design of the data base, data input parameters and requirements, and the use and interpretation of data. The data shall be used by the Administrator in making determinations under section 300g–1(b)(1) of this title with respect to the occurrence of a contaminant in drinking water at a level of public health concern. The Administrator shall periodically solicit recommendations from the appropriate officials of the National Academy of Sciences and the States, and any person may submit recommendations to the Administrator, with respect to contaminants that should be included in the national drinking water contaminant occurrence data base, including recommendations with respect to additional unregulated contaminants that should be listed under subsection (a)(2). Any recommendation submitted under this clause shall be accompanied by reasonable documentation that— The information from the data base shall be available to the public in readily accessible form. With respect to each contaminant for which a national primary drinking water regulation has been established, the data base shall include information on the detection of the contaminant at a quantifiable level in public water systems (including detection of the contaminant at levels not constituting a violation of the maximum contaminant level for the contaminant). With respect to contaminants for which a national primary drinking water regulation has not been established, the data base shall include— For purposes of sections 300g–1(b)(4)(E) and 300g–4(e) of this title (relating to small system variance program), the Administrator may request information on the characteristics of commercially available treatment systems and technologies, including the effectiveness and performance of the systems and technologies under various operating conditions. The Administrator may specify the form, content, and submission date of information to be submitted by manufacturers, States, and other interested persons for the purpose of considering the systems and technologies in the development of regulations or guidance under sections 300g–1(b)(4)(E) and 300g–4(e) of this title. The Administrator shall review new analytical methods to screen for regulated contaminants and may approve such methods as are more accurate or cost-effective than established reference methods for use in compliance monitoring. Notwithstanding subsection (a)(2)(A), the Administrator shall, subject to the availability of appropriations for such purpose— Paragraph (1) shall take effect 3 years after October 23, 2018. Paragraph (1) shall take effect unless the Administrator determines that there is not sufficient laboratory capacity to accommodate the analysis necessary to carry out monitoring required under such paragraph. The Administrator may not enforce a requirement to monitor pursuant to paragraph (1) with respect to any public water system serving fewer than 3,300 persons, including by subjecting such a public water system to any civil penalty. There are authorized to be appropriated $15,000,000 in each fiscal year for which monitoring is required to be carried out under this subsection for the Administrator to pay the reasonable cost of such testing and laboratory analysis as are necessary to carry out monitoring required under this subsection.