42 U.S.C. § 300j–3c — National assistance program for water infrastructure and watersheds

(a) Assistance: The EPA may give states technical and financial help, in the form of grants, (1) to build, rehabilitate, and improve water supply systems, and (2) — matching up with nonpoint source pollution programs under a separate law — to fund source water quality protection programs that address pollutants in navigable waters so those waters can be used by water supply systems. (b) Limit on source-protection spending: No more than 30 percent of the money appropriated for this section in a given fiscal year can go to the source water quality protection programs described in (a)(2). (c) Cost-effectiveness condition: To get this assistance, a state must make sure it's used in the most cost-effective way the state can manage. (d) Funding: Congress could spend $25,000,000 every year from fiscal year 1997 through 2003 for this section, with no conditions attached, and that money stays available until it's spent. Congress could spend another $25,000,000 each of those years, but only in a fiscal year where at least 75 percent of the total funds authorized under section 300j–12(m) are actually appropriated. (e) Buying land: Assistance under this section can be used to buy land or interests in land, but only from sellers who want to sell — the government can't use this section to force a sale. (f) Cost split: The federal government pays 50 percent of the cost of activities funded by grants under this section. (g) Definitions: "State" means a state, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, Guam, American Samoa, or the Northern Mariana Islands. A "water supply system" is a piped system that delivers water for people to drink, with at least 15 connections or regularly serving at least 25 people, or a draw-and-fill system doing the same — but not a system a federal agency owns. It includes the collection, treatment, storage, and distribution facilities the system's operator controls and mainly uses for the system, plus any collection or pretreatment facilities that aren't under the operator's control but are still mainly used for the system.