§300j–19g Midsize and Large Drinking Water System Infrastructure Resilience and Sustainability Program

Summary

Creates a grant program that gives money to public water systems serving communities of 10,000 people or more to make their systems stronger against natural hazards, extreme weather, and cyberattacks. Eligible entity: a public water system serving 10,000+ people. Natural hazard and resilience: defined in another law (section 300i–2(h)). Resilience and sustainability program: the name of the new grant program. Grants must be used for planning, design, construction, operation, or maintenance of projects that boost resilience or cut cybersecurity risks. Examples include things like water conservation and efficiency, fixing or moving infrastructure threatened by floods or other hazards, building or updating desalination for existing communities, protecting source water and watersheds, improving energy efficiency or using renewable energy, water reuse, and forming regional partnerships. To apply, systems must submit a proposal that says what the project will do, the hazards or cyber risks it will address, government documentation of those risks, any recent events that hurt the system, and how the project will help. The Administrator must report to Congress on the program not later than 2 years after November 15, 2021. Up to $50,000,000 is authorized each fiscal year for 2022 through 2026, split so 50 percent goes to systems serving populations >=10,000 and <100,000 and 50 percent goes to systems serving populations >=100,000. No more than 2 percent of the money may be used for program administrative costs.