NOTICES
PENNSYLVANIA INFRASTRUCTURE INVESTMENT AUTHORITY DEPARTMENT OF ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION
Clean Water and Drinking Water State Revolving Fund Programs; Solicitation for Applications for Funding Under the Green Project Reserve of Federal Pub. L. No. 111-5, the ''American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009''
[39 Pa.B. 1780]
[Saturday, April 4, 2009]The ''American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009'' (ARRA) provides funding for a wide variety of potential applicants to accomplish work in support of water quality and drinking water quality efforts. The objective of this solicitation is to encourage the submittal of applications for projects that ''address green infrastructure, water or energy efficiency improvements, or other environmentally innovative activities.'' Applications must be submitted by May 18, 2009.
Detailed information will be available at www. recovery.pa.gov to assist potential applicants, including a link to the electronic application process.
Some organizations currently have applications pending at the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) and/or at the Pennsylvania Infrastructure Investment Authority (PennVest) for water quality and drinking water financial support. The applicants who believe their project may qualify for additional funding should revise their application as necessary and submit the information following the instructions in www.recovery.pa.gov.
Applicants are advised that because a major purpose of the ARRA is to promote rapid economic recovery, the work must be ready to proceed upon award of the funding.
A. Eligible Projects (see Attachment A for additional detail):
As defined by United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Guidance and in ARRA, the following categories of water quality work may be funded under Clean Water and Drinking Water State Revolving Fund authority:
1. Water Efficiency
2. Energy Efficiency
3. Green Infrastructure
4. Environmentally Innovative Projects
B. Eligible Applicants
Applicants for Clean Water State Revolving Fund projects must meet one of the following criteria or obtain a sponsor that meets one of the criteria:
* Watershed organizations recognized by DEP who promote local watershed conservation efforts (organization must be incorporated). For more information on incorporating, contact the Department of State, Corporation Bureau at (888) 659-9962.
* Counties and Municipalities (boroughs, townships, , and the like);
* County Conservation Districts;
* Council of Governments; or
* Other authorized organizations involved in research, restoration, rehabilitation, planning, acquisition, development, education or other activities which further the protection, enhancement, conservation, preservation or enjoyment of the Commonwealth's environmental, conservation, recreation or similar resources.
The organization must be:
* A tax exempt corporation under section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code and registered with the Pennsylvania Bureau of Charitable Organizations. For information on becoming 501(C)(3) and tax/other requirements associated with it, contact the Internal Revenue Service at (800) 829-3676 or go to their web site at http://www.irs.gov/charities/nonprofits/index.html. For information on registering with the Bureau of Charitable Organizations contact the Department of State, Bureau of Charitable Organizations, 124 Pine Street, 3rd Floor, Harrisburg, PA 17101, (800) 732-0999.
* An educational institution involved in these authorized activities; or
* A municipal authority.
* Applicants must own or operate the facility to be constructed. Operations may be contracted to others.
Applicants for Drinking Water State Revolving Fund projects must be publicly or privately-owned Public Water Systems.
* Applicants must own or operate the facility to be constructed. Operations may be contracted to others.
Questions on the above can be directed to Lee Murphy at (717) 772-4055 or c-lemurphy@state.pa.us.
A meeting will be held to assist potential applicants on April 14, 2009 at 1 p.m. in the Second Floor Auditorium of the Rachael Carson State Office Building, 400 Market Street, Harrisburg, PA. Persons in need of accommodations as provided for in the Americans With Disabilities Act of 1990 should contact Lee Murphy as noted previously, or through the Pennsylvania AT&T Relay Service at (800) 654-5984 (TDD) to discuss how the Department may accommodate their needs.
JOHN HANGER,
Vice Chair
Attachment A As defined by U. S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Guidance and in ARRA, the following categories of water quality work may be funded under Clean Water State Revolving Fund authority:
1. Water Efficiency: Water efficiency is defined as the use of improved technologies and practices to deliver equal or better services with less water.
Examples of projects include, but are not limited to:
a. Installation of water meters.
b. Retrofit or replacement of water using fixtures, fittings, equipment or appliances.
c. Efficient landscape or irrigation equipment.
d. Systems to recycle gray water.
e. Reclamation, recycling, and reuse of existing rainwater, condensate, degraded water, stormwater and/or wastewater streams.
f. Collection system leak detection equipment.
2. Energy Efficiency: Energy efficiency is defined as the use of improved technologies and practices to reduce the energy consumption of water quality projects, including projects to reduce energy consumption or produce clean energy used by a treatment works defined in section 212 of the Clean Water Act.
Examples of projects include, but are not limited to:
a. Energy efficient retrofits and upgrades to pumps and treatment processes.
b. Leak detection equipment for treatment works.
c. Production of clean power for use onsite (wind, solar, hydroelectric, geothermal, biogas powered combined heat and power).
3. Green Infrastructure: Green infrastructure is defined as a wide array of practices at multiple scales that manage and treat stormwater and that maintain and restore natural hydrology by infiltrating, evapotranspiring and capturing and using stormwater. On a regional scale, green infrastructure is the preservation and restoration of natural landscape features, such as forests, floodplains and wetlands, coupled with policies such as infill and redevelopment that reduce overall perviousness in a watershed. On the local scale green infrastructure consists of site -and neighborhood-specific practices, such as bioretention, trees, green roofs, porous pavements and cisterns.
Examples of projects include, but are not limited to:
a. Implementation of green street designs (combinations of green infrastructure practices in transportation rights-of-ways) for either new development, redevelopment or retrofits.
b. Implementation of water harvesting and reuse programs or projects.
c. Comprehensive retrofit programs designed to keep wet weather out of all types of sewer systems using green infrastructure technologies and approaches such as implementation of wet weather management systems for parking areas which include but are not limited to: porous pavement, bioretention, sustainable landscape, green roofs and other practices that mimic natural hydrology and reduce effective imperviousness at one or more scales, including constructed wetlands.
d. Hydromodification to establish or restore riparian buffers, floodplains, wetlands and other natural features.
e. Downspout disconnection to remove stormwater from combined sewers and storm sewers.
f. Implementation of comprehensive urban canopy or urban forestry programs, including expansion of vegetation box sizes to manage additional stormwater and enhance vegetation health.
4. Environmentally Innovative Projects: Environmentally innovative projects are projects that demonstrate new and/or innovative approaches to managing water resources in a more sustainable way, including projects that achieve pollution prevention or pollutant removal with reduced costs and projects that foster adaptation of water protection programs and practices to mitigate climate change.
Examples of projects include, but are not limited to:
a. Implementation of green infrastructure and/or Low Impact Development projects.
b. Wetland restoration and constructed wetlands.
c. Decentralized wastewater treatment solutions to existing deficient or failing on site systems.
d. Water reuse projects that reduce energy consumption, recharge aquifers or reduce water withdrawals and treatment costs.
e. The water quality portion of projects that employ development and redevelopment practices that preserve or restore site hydrologic processes through sustainable landscaping and site design.
f. Projects that use water balance approaches (water budgets) at the project, local or State level that preserve site, local or regional hydrology. Such an effort could showcase the ability to plan and manage in a concerted manner, surface and groundwater withdrawals, stream flow (aquatic species protection), wetland and floodplain storage, groundwater recharge and regional or local reuse and harvesting strategies using a quantified methodology.
g. Projects that facilitate adaptation of clean water programs and practices that address climate change.
h. The water quality portion of projects that demonstrate the energy savings and greenhouse gas reduction benefits of sustainable site design practices and the use of green infrastructure to control stormwater runoff.
i. Projects that incorporate differential uses of water based on the level of treatment to reduce the costs of treating all water to potable water standards.
j. Projects that identify and quantify the benefits of using integrated water resources management approaches at the project, local or State level that preserve site, local or regional hydrology.
As defined by EPA Guidance and in ARRA, the following categories of work may be funded under Drinking Water State Revolving Fund (DWSRF) authority:
EPA anticipates that ''water or energy efficiency'' projects will likely be the principal focus of the Green Project Reserve under the DWSRF. However, there may also be projects, or components of projects, that qualify for consideration under the Green Project Reserve in the DWSRF on the basis of application of green infrastructure or being environmentally innovative.
1. Water Efficiency: Water efficiency is the use of improved technologies and practices to deliver equal or better services with less water.
Examples of projects include, but are not limited to:
a. Installation of water meters or automated meter reading systems.
b. Retrofit or replacement of water using fixtures, fittings, equipment or appliances (can include rebate programs).
c. Distribution system leak detection equipment.
d. Replacement or rehabilitation of distribution lines (note that eligibility will require documentation of exceptional technologies and practices to qualify).
2. Energy Efficiency: Energy efficiency includes capital projects that reduce the energy consumption of eligible drinking water infrastructure projects.
Examples of projects include, but are not limited to:
a. Energy efficient retrofits and upgrades to pumps and treatment processes (note that eligibility will require documentation of exceptional technologies and practices to qualify).
b. Leak detection equipment.
c. Production of clean power for use onsite (wind, solar, hydroelectric, geothermal, biogas powered combined heat and power).
d. Replacement or rehabilitation of distribution lines (note that eligibility will require documentation of exceptional technologies and practices to qualify).
3. Green Infrastructure: Green Infrastructure includes a wide array of practices that manage wet weather to maintain and restore natural hydrology by infiltrating, evapotranspiring and capturing and using stormwater. In the context of the DWSRF, green infrastructure consists of site-specific practices, such as green roofs and porous pavement at drinking water utility facilities. In addition to managing rainfall, these green infrastructure technologies can simultaneously provide other benefits such as reducing energy demands.
Examples of projects include, but are not limited to:
a. Implementation of wet weather management systems for utility buildings and parking areas which include: the incremental cost of porous pavement, bioretention, trees, green roofs and other practices that mimic natural hydrology and reduce effective imperviousness.
4. Environmentally Innovative Projects: Within the context of the DWSRF program, ''environmentally innovative projects'' would include those that are:
(1) consistent with the underlying project eligibilities of the DWSRF program;
(2) consistent with the timelines and objectives of the ARRA; and
(3) demonstrate new and/or innovative approaches to delivering service and/or managing water resources in a more sustainable way, including projects that achieve public health protection and environmental protection objectives at the least life-cycle costs.
Examples of projects include, but are not limited to:
a. Projects, or components of projects, that enable the utility to adapt to the impacts of global climate change.
b. Projects, or components of projects, consistent with a ''Total Water Management'' planning framework; or other planning framework within which project life cycle costs (including infrastructure, energy consumption and other operational costs) are minimized.
[Pa.B. Doc. No. 09-653. Filed for public inspection April 3, 2009, 9:00 a.m.]
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