---
kind: "section"
citation: "33 U.S.C. § 1302"
title: "33"
title_heading: "Navigation and Navigable Waters"
number: "1302"
heading: "Wastewater efficiency grant pilot program"
release: "119-102"
date: "2026-07-12"
url: "https://uscodex.org/usc/33/1302"
units:
  - "Chapter 26 — Water Pollution Prevention and Control"
  - "Subchapter II — Grants for Construction of Treatment Works"
---

# §1302. Wastewater efficiency grant pilot program

- (a) **Establishment—** Subject to the availability of appropriations, the Administrator shall establish a wastewater efficiency grant pilot program (referred to in this section as the “pilot program”) to award grants to owners or operators of publicly owned [treatment works](/usc/33/1292.md?p=2-A) to carry out projects that create or improve waste-to-energy systems.
- (b) **Selection—**
  - (1) **Applications—** To be eligible to receive a grant under the pilot program, an owner or operator of a [treatment works](/usc/33/1292.md?p=2-A) shall submit to the Administrator an application at such time, in such manner, and containing such information as the Administrator may require.
  - (2) **Number of recipients—** The Administrator shall select not more than 15 recipients of grants under the pilot program from applications submitted under [paragraph (1)](#b-1).
- (c) **Use of funds—**
  - (1) **In general—** Subject to [paragraph (2)](#c-2), a recipient of a grant under the pilot program may use grant funds for—
    - (A) sludge collection;
    - (B) installation of anaerobic digesters;
    - (C) methane capture;
    - (D) methane transfer;
    - (E) facility upgrades and retrofits necessary to create or improve waste-to-energy systems; and
    - (F) other new and emerging, but proven, technologies that transform waste to energy.
  - (2) **Limitation—** A grant to a recipient under the pilot program shall be not more than $4,000,000.
- (d) **Reports—**
  - (1) **Report to the Administrator—** Not later than 2 years after receiving a grant under the pilot program and each year thereafter for which amounts are made available for the pilot program under [subsection (e)](#e), the recipient of the grant shall submit to the Administrator a report describing the impact of that project on the communities within 3 miles of the [treatment works](/usc/33/1292.md?p=2-A).
  - (2) **Report to Congress—** Not later than 1 year after first awarding grants under the pilot program and each year thereafter for which amounts are made available for the pilot program under [subsection (e)](#e), the Administrator shall submit to Congress a report describing—
    - (A) the applications received by the Administrator for grants under the pilot program; and
    - (B) the projects for which grants were awarded under the pilot program.
- (e) **Authorization of appropriations—**
  - (1) **In general—** There is authorized to be appropriated to carry out the pilot program $20,000,000 for each of fiscal years 2022 through 2026, to remain available until expended.
  - (2) **Limitation on use of funds—** Of the amounts made available for grants under [paragraph (1)](#e-1), not more than 2 percent may be used to pay the administrative costs of the Administrator.

## Source credit

(June 30, 1948, ch. 758, title II, § 222, as added Pub. L. 117–58, div. E, title II, § 50202, Nov. 15, 2021, 135 Stat. 1158.)