42 U.S.C. § 300j–19a — Assistance for small and disadvantaged communities

(a) Definition of underserved community. An "underserved community" is a political subdivision of a state that the EPA decides has an inadequate drinking water system. That includes a subdivision that either has no household drinking water or wastewater service, or is served by a water system that violates or exceeds a national drinking water rule — such as a maximum contaminant level, a required treatment method, or an action level. (b) Establishment. The EPA must run a grant program to help public water systems meet the requirements of this subchapter. Grants can pay for: work needed for a water system to comply with the law; help that directly and mainly benefits a disadvantaged community, per household; household water-quality testing programs, including for unregulated contaminants; buying point-of-entry or point-of-use filters certified by an independent tester using science-based methods; giving people accurate, current information about the need for filters, filter safety, and options for replacing lead service lines or removing other lead sources; and contracts — including with nonprofits that have water-system expertise — to help an eligible entity or its state. (c) Eligible entities. Except for the household-connection program in (m) and the resilience program in (l), an eligible entity is a public water system, a water system on tribal land, or a state acting for an underserved community. It must also serve a community that the state has determined, under its own affordability criteria, is disadvantaged or could become disadvantaged by the project — or a community under 10,000 people that the EPA decides can't afford to borrow enough to pay for the project itself. (d) Priority. When choosing which projects to fund, the EPA must favor ones that help underserved communities. (e) Local participation. When setting priorities, the EPA must consult with, and consider the priorities of, the states, tribes, and local governments where these communities are located. (f) Technical, managerial, and financial capability. The EPA can give extra help to a grant recipient that lacks the technical, managerial, or financial skill to run its water system, if it isn't already getting that help from another federal program. (g) Cost sharing. Before giving a grant, the EPA must sign a binding agreement requiring the recipient to: pay at least 10 percent of the total project cost (which can include in-kind contributions like services, materials, or supplies), unless waived under (l)(5) and subject to the waiver rule in (h); provide any needed land, easements, rights-of-way, or relocations; and pay 100 percent of any ongoing operation and maintenance costs. (h) Waiver. The EPA can waive some or all of that 10-percent local-share requirement if it decides the recipient can't afford it or would face serious financial hardship paying it. (i) Limitation on use of funds. No more than 4 percent of this section's grant funds can go toward the EPA's own administrative costs. (j) State response to contaminants. The EPA can give a grant to a state, on behalf of a qualifying community, so the state can respond to a contaminant that the state has found is present or likely to enter a water system or groundwater source serving that community, that could seriously and immediately endanger health, and that the right authorities haven't yet acted on enough to protect people. If someone is later found — by the EPA or a court — to have caused contamination that was discovered or treated using this grant money, and that contamination broke a law the EPA enforces, that person must tell the EPA in writing within 30 days after all appeals are exhausted, and must pay the EPA back the full amount of the grant funds used. (k) Authorization of appropriations. Congress could spend, for subsections (a) through (j): $70,000,000 in 2022; $80,000,000 in 2023; $100,000,000 in 2024; $120,000,000 in 2025; and $140,000,000 in 2026. (l) Drinking water infrastructure resilience and sustainability. This creates the "Drinking Water System Infrastructure Resilience and Sustainability Program." "Resilience" and "natural hazard" mean what they mean in section 300i–2(h). The EPA must award grants each year from 2022 through 2026 to eligible entities to help them withstand natural hazards. Grant money can only go toward planning, designing, building, running, or maintaining a project that boosts resilience through: conserving water or using it more efficiently; moving or upgrading water infrastructure that natural hazards — including flooding — have damaged or put at risk; designing or building desalination plants for existing communities; protecting water supply through watershed management and source-water protection; improving energy efficiency or adding renewable energy to how drinking water is moved or treated; or other steps that build resilience to natural hazards. To apply, an entity must submit a proposal describing the project, the natural hazard risk it addresses, official documentation of that risk, recent natural-hazard events that hit its system, how the project would improve performance under expected hazards, and how it would boost resilience. Normally the federal government pays 90 percent of the project cost, but the EPA can raise that to 100 percent for an entity that can't afford, or would face serious hardship paying, its share. Congress could spend $25,000,000 a year on this program for fiscal years 2022 through 2026. (m) Connection to public water systems. This defines an "eligible entity" here as a water system owner or operator, or a nonprofit, that helps or wants to help "eligible individuals" (as defined in section 1383(j) of title 33) pay to connect their homes to a public water system. Subject to available funding, the EPA must run a competitive grant program giving these entities money to cover people's home-connection costs. An applicant must apply as the EPA directs. Before giving anyone connection funds, the entity must confirm to the EPA that the person is connecting voluntarily; that if the entity doesn't own the water system, that system has agreed to the connection; and that the connection follows all local and state rules and codes. Within 3 years of November 15, 2021, the EPA must report to Congress on how the program has been carried out. Congress could spend $20,000,000 a year on this program for fiscal years 2022 through 2026. (n) State competitive grants for underserved communities. On top of the money authorized in (k), Congress could spend $50,000,000 a year for fiscal years 2022 through 2026 for subsections (a) through (j), distributed only through a competitive grant program for states. A state applies as the EPA directs, and the EPA must favor states with a high share of underserved communities that meet the violation-based definition in (a)(2)(A). Within 2 years of November 15, 2021, the EPA must report to Congress on how this competitive program has been carried out. Nothing in this competitive-grant rule changes how the money authorized under (k) is distributed, including any distribution method the EPA was already using as of November 14, 2021.