35-11-521. Grants for municipal solid waste landfill monitoring.

(a) Subject to the availability of funds, the director shall provide grants toward the costs of performing activities specified in subsection (b) of this section to local governmental entities who own or are responsible for any municipal solid waste landfill, for any project where a work plan has been submitted to the department for work performed or initiated after July 1, 2005.

(b) Grant funding under this section may be provided at existing or closed municipal solid waste landfills for the following activities:

(i) Conducting surface or subsurface geophysical studies to determine proper monitor system placement and to provide an indication of the presence or absence of groundwater beneath and adjacent to the landfill;

(ii) Preparing plans for installation of systems to monitor or detect releases of subsurface pollutants from landfills;

(iii) Installing new monitor systems or upgrading existing monitor systems to meet standards for the systems established by the department under this article; and

(iv) Collecting and analyzing samples from monitor systems installed under paragraph (iii) of this subsection, for a period of time sufficient to determine if there have been releases of subsurface pollutants from the landfill for any landfill which ceased receipt of solid wastes before September 13, 1989.

(c) Grants for eligible costs under subsection (b) of this section may be awarded:

(i) For up to fifty percent (50%) of the eligible costs; or

(ii) For up to seventy-five percent (75%) of eligible costs for applicants meeting the following criteria:

(A) Municipalities with a population of less than one thousand three hundred (1,300) or which are located within a county where the three (3) year average of the total local government share of state sales and use tax per capita is less than seventy percent (70%) of the statewide per capita average; or

(B) Counties, solid waste disposal districts, joint powers boards, and special purpose districts located within a county with a total assessed valuation of less than two and one-half percent (2.5%) of the state's total assessed valuation.