Section 3. (a) The purposes for which the trust is created and for which the fund shall be received, held, administered and disbursed by the board of trustees shall be the provision of financial assistance, in the manner contemplated by Title VI of the Clean Water Act, to local governmental units as beneficiaries of the trust to finance the costs of water pollution abatement projects as provided in, and as necessary to implement the provisions of, this chapter. In accordance with the terms of any trust agreement entered into by the trust with respect to bonds secured by monies or revenues of the fund, the holders of such bonds also shall be beneficiaries of such trust. The board shall apply and disburse monies and revenues of the fund without appropriation or allotment by the commonwealth.

(b) Without limiting the generality of the foregoing and other powers of the trust, the board of trustees shall have the power:

(i) to adopt and amend by-laws and such rules, regulations and procedures for the conduct of the business of the trust as the board shall deem necessary to carry out the provisions of this chapter;

(ii) to apply for, receive, administer and comply with the conditions and requirements respecting any grant, gift or appropriation of property, services or monies;

(iii) to borrow and repay money by issuing bonds of the trust, to apply the proceeds thereof as provided in this chapter and to pledge or assign or create security interests in the fund and the receipts thereto to secure bonds;

(iv) to make loans and other forms of financial assistance authorized by Title VI of the Clean Water Act to local governmental units to finance or refinance costs of water pollution abatement projects, to acquire, hold and sell local governmental obligations and other instruments evidencing the loans and other forms of financial assistance at such prices and in such manner as the board shall deem advisable and to secure bonds of the trust with loans, local governmental obligations and other instruments.

(v) to enter into contracts, arrangements and agreements with other persons and execute and deliver all trust agreements, loan agreements and other instruments necessary or convenient to the exercise of the powers of the trust;

(vi) to obtain insurance and enter into agreements of indemnification necessary or convenient to the exercise of the powers of the trust;

(vii) to sue and be sued and to prosecute and defend actions relating to the affairs of the trust and the fund; provided, however, that the trust is not authorized to become a debtor under the United States Bankruptcy Code;

(viii) to engage accounting, management, legal, financial, consulting and other professional services necessary to the conduct of the programs of the trust.

(c) In its administration of the federal state revolving loan program as provided in this chapter, the board of trustees shall comply with applicable federal legal requirements under Title VI of the Clean Water Act. The programs of the trust also shall be subject to powers and responsibilities expressly reserved to the department under section twenty-seven A of chapter twenty-one. In addition, the trust shall not be authorized or empowered (1) to be or to constitute a bank or trust company within the jurisdiction or under the control of the department of banking and insurance of the commonwealth or the comptroller of the currency or the treasury department of the United States, or (2) to be or constitute a bank, banker or dealer in securities within the meaning of, or subject to the provisions of, any securities, securities exchange or securities dealers' law of the United States or the commonwealth.