(a)The General Assembly finds all of the following:
(1)The waters of this State are among Delaware’s most basic and valuable resources and should be conserved and protected in a manner to realize their full benefits.
(2)Delaware’s continued economic vitality is dependent upon: maintaining and improving the State’s water and wastewater systems; and protecting and enhancing the State’s water resources and natural infrastructure as the foundation for a healthy population and environment to sustain a high quality of life for residents, healthy habitats, as well as an attraction for tourism, employers and workers.
(3)Many Delaware homes, farms, agricultural lands, and businesses are at risk from flooding and drainage hazards, which have environmental, public safety, health, and economic
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(a) The General Assembly finds all of the following:
(1) The waters of this State are among Delaware’s most basic and valuable resources and should be conserved and protected in a manner to realize their full benefits.
(2) Delaware’s continued economic vitality is dependent upon: maintaining and improving the State’s water and wastewater systems; and protecting and enhancing the State’s water resources and natural infrastructure as the foundation for a healthy population and environment to sustain a high quality of life for residents, healthy habitats, as well as an attraction for tourism, employers and workers.
(3) Many Delaware homes, farms, agricultural lands, and businesses are at risk from flooding and drainage hazards, which have environmental, public safety, health, and economic impacts, and some Delawareans lack access to potable drinking water or basic wastewater disposal in their homes.
(4) Delaware’s list of impaired waters includes 377 bodies of water that suffer from excess nutrients, low dissolved oxygen, toxins and bacteria that negatively impact human and aquatic life.
(5) It is important that priorities for clean water projects in this State be given to projects that utilize green infrastructure and enhancement of natural systems to provide ecological benefits that include all of the following:
a. Improvement of water quality.
b. Demonstration of a high ratio of nutrient or pollution reduction to the amount of funding.
c. Improvement of community resilience to extreme weather, sea level rise, and other climate impacts.
(6) Existing federal and state funding resources alone are inadequate to meeting the State’s current and future demand for clean water projects.
(7) It is fitting and proper for the State to encourage local governments, private entities and farmers to undertake clean water projects that effectively and efficiently reduce pollution in the waters of the State by establishing mechanisms to assist planning and financing of such projects at the lowest reasonable costs.
(b) Based on its findings in subsection (a) of this section, the General Assembly determines that it is in the public interest to designate a Delaware Clean Water Trust account to ensure the greatest environmental return on investment through the management and coordination of financial resources available to the State for drinking water, wastewater, drainage, stormwater, and other eligible clean water projects to be funded from the following sources:
(1) Appropriations, including supplemental funds in the bond bill, intended to satisfy all of the following purposes:
a. Section 7903(14) of this title related to the Delaware Safe Drinking Water Revolving Fund.
b. Section 8003(12) of this title related to the Delaware Water Pollution Control Revolving Fund.
c. Section 3923 of Title 7 related to resource conservation and development projects undertaken by the County Conservation Districts in Kent, New Castle and Sussex Counties.
(2) Moneys received as repayments of principal and interest on loans, interest received on invested funds, and other funding made available for the programs and purposes in paragraph (b)(1) of this section.