Sec. 13304. Needs assessment for nationwide rural and urban low-income community water assistance program

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In this section: The term Administrator means the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency. The term household means any individual or group of individuals who are living together as 1 economic unit. The term low-income household means a household— in which 1 or more individuals are receiving— assistance under a State program funded under part A of title IV of the Social Security Act ( 42 U.S.C. 601 et seq. ); supplemental security income payments under title XVI of the Social Security Act ( 42 U.S.C. 1381 et seq. ); supplemental nutrition assistance program benefits under the Food and Nutrition Act of 2008 ( 7 U.S.C. 2011 et seq. ); payments under— section 1315, 1521, 1541, or of title 38, United States Code; or section 306 of the Veterans’ and Survivors’ Pension Improvement Act of 1978 ( 38 U.S.C. 1521 note;

Public Law 95–588 ); assistance under the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program ( 42 U.S.C. 8621 ); or assistance under the Women Infants and Children program ( 42 U.S.C. 1786 ); or that has an income that as determined by the State in which the household is located that is receiving a grant under paragraph (7)(b), or an eligible wastewater or stormwater system receiving a grant under paragraph (7)(b), does not exceed the greater of— an amount equal to 200 per-cent of the poverty level; and an amount equal to 80 percent of the area median income.

The term poverty level means, with respect to a household in a State, the income described in the poverty guidelines issued by the Secretary of Health and Human Services pursuant to section 673 of the Community Services Block Grant Act ( 42 U.S.C. 9902 ), as applicable to the household. The term area median income means the unadjusted median income levels by geographic area as determined annually by the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development. Not later than one year after the date of enactment of this Act, and annually thereafter, the Administrator shall conduct, and submit to Congress a report describing the results of, a study regarding the prevalence throughout the United States of low-income households that do not have access to— affordable and functional centralized or onsite wastewater services that protect the health of individuals in the households; affordable municipal stormwater services; or affordable public drinking water services to meet household needs.

The Administrator shall collect regularly from community water systems, treatment works for municipal waste, municipal separate storm sewer systems, and such other sources as may be appropriate, for use in the reports under paragraph (1)— data, provided by zip code, concerning arrearages, service disconnections, and other debt collection activities for low-income households, including, at minimum, number of disconnections for nonpayment, length of disconnections, amount of debt at time of disconnection, number of households and amount of debt subject to sale or enforcement of property liens, number of households enrolled in an assistance program, number of eligible households, benefit levels, and amount of debt reduction for enrolled households, and number of enrolled households reconnected to water service; revenue collection information from each community water system, treatment works for municipal waste, and municipal separate storm sewer systems, including, at minimum, rate design for residential customers, billing frequency, fees and charges included on the bill, and projected rate increases over the next 5 years; information regarding customer assistance programs, including any rate structures, rebates, discounts, billing methods that average rates over the course of a year, known as budget billing , and procedures that ensure that households receive notice and an opportunity to dispute charges before service is disconnected or interrupted due to nonpayment; and other relevant information as determined by the Administrator.

The report under paragraph

(1)shall include— recommendations of the Administrator regarding the best methods to increase access to the services described in paragraph (1); a description of the cost of each method described in subparagraph (A); a description of all consultation with relevant stakeholders carried out in developing the report; and a description of the results of the study with respect to low-income households that live in rental housing and do not receive bills for such services, but pay for the services indirectly through rent payments. The Administrator may enter into an agreement with another Federal agency to carry out the study under paragraph (1). The Administrator may provide reasonable, one-time grants to owners and operators of community water systems, treatment works for municipal waste, and municipal separate storm sewer systems to modify their billing and data management systems in order to reliably and regularly generate the data required in this needs assessment. There is authorized to be appropriated to carry out this section $150,000,000 to remain available until expended.

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