It is hereby found and declared that the establishment of a municipal water quality financial assistance program to provide funds for grants for projects to improve Long Island Sound and to establish a low interest revolving loan fund and grant assistance fund to finance one hundred per cent of eligible project costs is necessary to ensure a continuing source of funds to finance the future needs of the state and is a matter of state-wide concern affecting the health, safety and welfare of the inhabitants of the state and the quality of the environment of the state, including the purity and adequacy of its drinking water, and that the establishment of such a program to encourage and support the planning, development and construction of water pollution control facilities and of necessary improvements to eligible public water systems serves an essential public purpose. It is further found and declared that, since the federal Water Quality Act of 1987 restructures the federal grant program for municipal water pollution control projects as a program in which grant proceeds must be used to provide financial assistance in a manner which promotes preservation of the corpus of such proceeds for continuing reapplication to the purposes for which the grants were provided, since financial assistance for municipal water pollution control projects can be more effectively provided through state participation in the federal program of capitalization grants to states as set forth in Section 212 of said act and compliance with requirements for eligibility to receive capitalization grants under such program, and since the act also permits states to use a revolving fund and its chief assets as a basis for issuing bonds for further revolving fund activity, and under such an arrangement a state is able to leverage outstanding loans made from an initial set of capitalization grants and make available significant amounts of money much sooner than would otherwise have been possible, it is in the interests of the state to make use of this mechanism. It is further found and declared that the federal government intends to establish a similar revolving fund program, funded in part with federal capitalization grants, which may be established and operated by states as part of the Clean Water Fund program, in order to provide financial assistance to develop and implement drinking water projects, and that therefore it is in the interests of the state to participate in such program. It is further found and declared that it is in the best interests of the state to plan to authorize, in addition to any other funds contemplated, the following amounts for the Long Island Sound clean-up account: Not less than five million dollars in 1991, not less than sixteen million dollars in 1992, not less than twenty million dollars in 1993, not less than sixteen million dollars in 1994, not less than twelve million dollars in 1995, not less than thirty-four million dollars in 1996, and not less than seven million dollars in 1997.

(P.A. 86-420, S. 2, 12; P.A. 87-571, S. 2, 7; P.A. 89-377, S. 2, 8; June Sp. Sess. P.A. 90-1, S. 1, 10; P.A. 96-181, S. 109, 121.)

History: P.A. 87-571 added provisions regarding the federal Water Quality Act of 1987; P.A. 89-377 inserted a reference to projects to improve Long Island Sound; June Sp. Sess. P.A. 90-1 added the listing of planned bond authorizations for the Long Island Sound clean-up account; P.A. 96-181 made additions re the purity and adequacy of drinking water and federal revolving fund program and made technical changes, effective July 1, 1996.