§1259 Training Grants and Contracts

Summary

The Administrator can give grants or contracts to colleges to help them plan, build, improve, or run programs that prepare undergraduates for jobs that design, operate, or maintain treatment works and other water-quality facilities. Grants can pay for things like planning and expanding programs, retraining faculty, short-term or regular training institutes, cooperative work-study programs that mix school and job work, and research, teaching materials, and curriculum development. The Administrator can also pay 100 percent of the extra construction cost for training parts of treatment works and can pay for State training programs (including mobile units, classroom rental, special instructors, and materials). Usually only one construction grant is made per State (but it may cover several States if needed), and the grant is made only after consulting and getting approval from the State(s) based on the facility’s suitability and the State’s promise to run an approved program. If a grant serves multiple States, an extra supplemental facility grant may be made in each State. The grant may come from funds under section 1285, but the Federal share cannot exceed $500,000. The Administrator may exempt these grants from the requirement in section 1284(a)(3). Any grantee who got a grant before the Clean Water Act of 1977 can have that grant increased with funds from that Act.