110 STAT. 1650 PUBLIC LAW 104-182—AUG. 6, 1996 "(F) The grant recipient has regional support beyond the host institution. "(5) CONSORTIA OF STATES.At least 2 of the grants under this subsection shall be made to consortia of States with low population densities. "(6) AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRiATiONS.There are authorized to be appropriated to make grants under this subsection $2,000,000 for each of the fiscal years 1997 through 1999, and $5,000,000 for each of the fiscal years 2000 through 2003. "(g) ENVIRONMENTAL FINANCE CENTERS.— "(1) IN GENERAL.— The Administrator shall provide initial funding for one or more university-based environmental finance centers for activities that provide technical assistance to State and local officials in developing the capacity of public water systems. Any such funds shall be used only for activities that are directly related to this title. Establishment. "(2) NATIONAL CAPACITY DEVELOPMENT CLEARINGHOUSE.— The Administrator shall establish a national public water system capacity development clearinghouse to receive and disseminate information with respect to developing, improving, and maintaining financial and managerial capacity at public water systems. The Administrator shall ensure that the clearinghouse does not duplicate other federally supported clearinghouse activities. " (3) CAPACITY DEVELOPMENT TECHNIQUES. — The Administrator may request an environmental finance center funded under paragraph (1) to develop and test managerial, financial, and institutional techniques for capacity development. The techniques may include capacity assessment methodologies, manual and computer based public water system rate models and capital planning models, public water system consolidation procedures, and regionalization models. "(4) AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS. — There are authorized to be appropriated to carry out this subsection $1,500,000 for each of the fiscal years 1997 through 2003. "(5) LIMITATION. —No portion of any funds made available under this subsection may be used for lobbying expenses.". SEC. 120. AUTHOMZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS FOR CERTAIN GROUND WATER PROGRAMS. (a) CRITICAL AQUIFER PROTECTION. — Section 1427 (42 U.S.C. 300h-6) is amended as follows: (1) Subsection (b)(1) is amended by striking "not later than 24 months after the enactment of the Safe Drinking Water Act Amendments of 1986". (2) The table in subsection (m) is amended by adding at the end the following: "1992-2003 15,000,000. ". (b) WELLHEAD PROTECTION AREAS. —The table in section 1428(k) (42 U.S.C. 300h-7(k)) is amended by adding at the end the following: "1992-2003 30,000,000. ".
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