§1926c Water and Waste Facility Loans and Grants to Alleviate Health Risks

Summary

The Secretary must make or back loans and give grants to rural water groups, cooperatives, similar entities, Indian tribes on Federal and State lands and other federally recognized tribes, and public agencies. The money is for building, fixing, or expanding water systems, drainage, waste disposal, and needed community equipment. Funds can only be used where many people in a community lack adequate, affordable water or waste services and face serious health risks. Loans and grants must mainly help people in counties where per capita income is at most 70 percent of the national average and unemployment is at least 125 percent of the national average, but money can also go to rural areas that were recognized as colonias on October 1, 1989. The Secretary must also make or insure loans and give grants directly to individuals in these communities to extend systems, connect homes, or install plumbing. Those loans cannot charge more interest than the Federal Financing Bank rate for similar loans and must be paid back over the expected life of the system. Preference goes to projects serving colonias (areas with poor housing, roads, drainage, and lacking water or waste services). A “cooperative” here means a group formed to install or run water or waste systems. Each year up to $30,000,000 is authorized for grants and $30,000,000 for loans, plus an extra $20,000,000 in grants each year to benefit Indian tribes. An entity that can get a grant under section 1926d cannot get the extra tribal grants. The Secretary had to issue interim final rules, asking for public comment, within 30 days after October 28, 1992.