(1) The advisory board shall develop guidelines on how to allocate the portion of and shall select grant recipients for the moneys in the pollution prevention fund created in section 25-16.5-109 which is available under said section for making grants for the purpose of providing technical assistance to small and medium-sized businesses and to other generators or users of hazardous and toxic substances. Grants may be made to academic institutions, trade associations, and environmental or engineering firms with knowledge of pollution prevention techniques and processes. The advisory board shall develop guidelines for awarding grants to provide technical assistance. In developing such guidelines, the advisory board shall determine priorities for such assistance, including an emphasis on reducing the production processes that use the largest amounts of hazardous substances and an emphasis on assisting small businesses. The advisory board shall select the grant recipients and shall determine the amount of the grant awarded to each recipient. The department shall then award the grants pursuant to this section through a contract entered into between the department and the grant recipient which details the conditions of the grant and the requirements and responsibilities of the grant recipient.

(2) For the purposes of this article, "technical assistance program" means the following types of activities:

(a) Providing technical assistance and outreach on pollution prevention to small and medium-sized businesses and to other generators or users of toxic substances;

(b) Providing on-site toxics use reduction and waste reduction assistance to small and medium-sized businesses and to other generators or users of toxic substances;

(c) Providing to businesses, trade associations, public entities, and to other generators or users of toxic substances information on the annual toxics use reduction and waste reduction that could be achieved by using pollution prevention techniques, the annual savings and implementation costs of such techniques, and the period of time necessary to recoup the money spent to implement the pollution prevention techniques;

(d) Providing on-site pollution prevention assessments of industrial plant production processes and waste generation, upon request of the affected businesses.

(3) Technical assistance programs shall be offered to small and medium-sized businesses and to public generators or users of toxic substances without charge.

(4) It is the intent of the general assembly that the technical assistance program not be used to document violations of or used in the enforcement of state laws or regulations.