§ 2324 — Reduced Pricing For Certain Water Supply Storage

(a) If a low income community requests the Secretary to provide water supply storage space in a water resources development project operated by the Secretary and if the amount of space requested is available or could be made available through reallocation of water supply storage space in the project or through modifications to operation of the project, the Secretary may provide such space to the community at a price determined under subsection (c). (b) The maximum amount of water supply storage space which may be provided to a community under this section may not exceed an amount of water supply storage space sufficient to yield 3,000,000 gallons of water per day. (c) The Secretary shall provide water supply storage space under this section at a price which is the greater of— (1) the updated construction cost of the project allocated to provide such amount of water supply storage space or $100 per acre foot of storage space, whichever is less; and (2) the value of the benefits which are lost as a result of providing such water supply storage space. (d) For purposes of subsection (c), the determinations of updated construction costs and value of benefits lost shall be made by the Secretary on the basis of the most recent information available. (e) The $100 amount set forth in subsection (c) shall be adjusted annually by the Secretary for changes in the Consumer Price Index of All Urban Consumers published by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. (f) Nothing in this section shall be construed as affecting the responsibility of non-Federal interests to provide operation and maintenance costs assigned to water supply storage provided under this section. (g) The term “low income community” means— (1) a community with a population of less than 20,000 which is located in a county with a per capita income less than the per capita income of two-thirds of the counties in the United States; or (2) a regional water system that serves a population of less than 100,000, for which the per capita income is less than the per capita income of not less than 50 percent of the counties in the United States.