Allocation of federal American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 funds for certain environmental purposes and granting rule-making authority. (FE)

The bill requires the governor to allocate $40,000,000 of the ARPA funds received by the state to provide, under SDWLP, principal forgiveness to municipalities to 1) cover up to 50 percent of the costs of lead service line replacement on private property or 2) provide grants to private users of public water systems to cover up to 50 percent of the costs of lead service line replacement on private property.

Urban nonpoint source program Under current law, DNR administers a program to provide financial assistance for projects that manage urban storm water and runoff. The bill requires the governor to allocate $12,000,000 of the ARPA funds received by the state to this program.

Rural nonpoint source program Under current law, DNR administers a program to provide financial assistance for projects that control pollution that comes from diffuse sources, rather than from a single concentrated discharge of pollution, in areas that qualify as high priority due to water quality problems. The bill requires the governor to allocate $6,500,000 of the ARPA funds received by the state to this program.

Well compensation grant program Under the well compensation grant program under current law, certain individual owners or renters of certain contaminated private wells may apply for a grant from DNR to cover a portion of the costs to treat the water, reconstruct the well, construct a new well, connect to a public water supply, or fill and seal the well. The bill requires the governor to allocate $2,000,000 of the ARPA funds received by the state to this program.

Grants for well testing and public education The bill requires DNR to create and administer a program to provide grants to counties to either 1) test and map privately owned wells to assess groundwater quality and to determine the extent and type of any contamination and study and map geologic characteristics and well construction practices in the county to determine any correlation between water quality, geology, and well construction; or 2) if a county has completed this type of study, to notify the public of the results of the study and to notify private well owners whose wells may be contaminated based on the results of the completed study. Under the bill, DNR may not provide more than $10,000 to any single county for testing and study under the first type of grant, or more than $2,500 per county for notifications under the second type of grant.

Counties may apply for a grant individually or as a group. The bill requires a county that receives a grant under this program to provide an equal amount of matching funds. The county must also share the results of its testing with the Center for Watershed Science and Education, but may not include any personally identifiable information with the submitted results.

The bill requires the governor to allocate $500,000 of the ARPA funds received by the state for these purposes.