(a) The sum of sixty million dollars ($60,000,000) in the account, upon appropriation by the Legislature to the department, shall be used by the department for grants awarded by the department to local agencies for the purposes of funding infrastructure rehabilitation projects.
(b) (1) For the purposes of making grants pursuant to subdivision (a), the factors to be considered by the department in determining whether to enter into an agreement shall include, but not be limited to, the need to implement projects that provide measurable conservation through the reduction of system water losses by rehabilitating water delivery systems.
(2) Grants awarded pursuant to subdivision (a) shall be available for public water systems owned and operated by local agencies in economically disadvantaged areas with service connections that exceed 200 but are not greater than 16,000 in number. The department shall give highest priority in awarding grants to those agencies with the highest retail water rates and service charges as of January 1, 1999.
(c) No single construction grant under this article shall exceed five million dollars ($5,000,000).
(Added by Stats. 1999, Ch. 725, Sec. 1. Approved in Proposition 13 at the March 7, 2000, election.)