As used in this part, unless the context otherwise requires:
 1. “Cost” means all costs, charges, expenses, or other indebtedness incurred by a loan recipient and determined by the authority as reasonable and necessary for carrying out all works and undertakings necessary or incidental to the accomplishment of any project.
 2. “Eligible entity” means a municipality or a landowner, as determined by the authority, a public utility as defined in section 476.1, a specified industry, or a rural water district or rural water association as defined in section 357A.1.
 3. “Loan recipient” means an eligible entity that has received a loan under the program.
 4. “Municipality” means a governmental body such as a state agency or a political subdivision of the state. Municipality includes but is not limited to a city, city utility, county, soil and water conservation district, sanitary district, a subdistrict of any of the foregoing districts, a state agency, or other governmental body or corporation empowered to provide sewage collection and treatment services or drinking water, or any entity jointly exercising governmental powers pursuant to chapter 28E or 28F, or any other combination of two or more governmental bodies or corporations acting jointly under the laws of this state in connection with a project.
 5. “Program” means the water quality financing program created in this part.
 6. “Project” means any combination of improvements, structures, developments, tasks, actions, constructions, modifications, operations, or practices designed to improve water quality that are proposed by an eligible entity and approved by the authority. “Project” includes but is not limited to any of the following:

 a. A project meeting the requirements of part 2 of this subchapter.
 b. A project, operation, or practice undertaken or carried out to address watershed protection, flood prevention, or water quality improvement.
 c. A project meeting the requirements of a sponsor project under section 455B.199.
 7. “Specified industry” means any of the following:

 a. An entity engaged in an industry identified in the Iowa nutrient reduction strategy, as determined by the authority, which industry is or will be required pursuant to the Iowa nutrient reduction strategy to collect data on the source, concentration, and mass of total nitrogen or total phosphorus in its effluent, and to evaluate alternatives for reducing the amount of nutrients in its discharge.
 b. An entity implementing technology or operational improvements to reduce nutrients in its discharge.