The Association of Metropolitan Water Agencies (AMWA), representing large U.S. drinking water systems, submitted a pair of comments this month pertaining to proposed waivers of Build America, Buy America (BABA) requirements for EPA program-funded projects.
EPA has previously proposed temporary public interest waivers for projects funded by the Water Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act (WIFIA), State Revolving Fund, and various other water programs. AMWA has repeatedly urged EPA to expand these waivers to allow projects more time to adapt to the new provisions.
The first proposed waiver offered relief from BABA requirements for EPA-funded projects awarded $250,000 or less. AMWA has voiced support for small projects waivers but argued the $250,000 threshold was too low. Due to increasing costs of labor and materials and the average award of the Drinking Water State Revolving Fund and the Small and Disadvantaged communities Drinking Water grants, AMWA recommended $1.2 million as a more appropriate threshold for BABA waivers of small projects. This measure would ensure more projects have the flexibility to maximize the benefits of these awards.
The second proposed waiver would provide a BABA waiver for de minimis items, up to 5 percent of the total cost of materials. While supporting the BABA requirements waiver for de minimis items, the association recommended that EPA has a simple and streamlined process for projects to receive a waiver if de minimis items exceed the 5 percent threshold. AMWA argued that this arbitrary percentage threshold should not prevent projects with large purchases of de minimis items from benefitting from a waiver of BABA requirements.
EPA has finalized a waiver for WIFIA-funded projects that have initiated project design planning prior to May 14, 2022, the effective date of the BABA requirements. EPA is reviewing comments on other program waivers and intends to finalize them soon.
Source: Association of Metropolitan Water Agencies
In the June 2019 issue of Water Environment and Technology I co-authored an article “Wastewater Management and the Design of its Governing Systems. In it I argued that we needed a wastewater protocol under water resource management. It would be a hybrid scalable sewer system that would not intrude on public health onsite systems or point source protocols. what it would do is enable clustered sewer systems that could be built the way we build roads and given to the community. Essentionally, defacto action research has been done over the past 30 years to validate the efficacy of innovative and alternative collection treatment and disposal systems that are now virtually permittable in every state and available in competitive commercial markets. The dilemma is that by default we go to point source approaches and their derivatives like ground water discharge and onsite septic systems because they are the easiest permittable channels. Because there is a way there is a will. Without a way we are missing the opportunity to take advantage of “One Water” strategies as well as a variety of private public funding opportunities and other creative forms of financing and the generation of asset values that accompany wastewater management when you can allign the delivery of infrastructure with demand. In the archives of the Small Communities Committee and the office of government affairs at WEF are notes on a strategy that would enable the EPA to propose a third code that could be adopted by the states. It is designed to be collaborative instead of punitive. I have documented evidence on how such an approach can cut the costs of remediation in half and dramatically increase the asset value of the property involved.
I would welcome the opportunity to share what I know with interested parties. I have been published and speaking nationally on this subject for 20 years. There is nothing that I will propose that is not doable under current law and has not already been demionstrated in the marketplace