(1) ELIGIBLE PROJECTS. An eligible applicant
may receive financial assistance under this subchapter for a publicly owned
project with total estimated project costs of $2,000,000 or less that meets any
of the following criteria if the project did not reach substantial completion
more than 3 years prior to the date on which the applicant submits a complete
application for financial assistance under s.
NR 162.40 (5):
(a)
Traditional wastewater treatment plant and collection system
projects. A municipality may receive financial assistance under this
subchapter for a publicly-owned wastewater treatment works scored project that
meets any of the following criteria:
1. The
project is necessary to prevent a municipality from significantly exceeding a
wastewater effluent limitation contained in a permit issued under ch. 283,
Stats. All of the following types of projects are included under this
paragraph:
a. Projects for which construction
will completely take place inside the fence or on site of a wastewater
treatment plant, such as projects to build or modify headworks, clarifiers,
aeration basins, stabilization ponds, sludge processing equipment, sludge
storage facilities, or on-site administrative buildings, and projects to build
or modify facilities for the receiving, storage, or treatment of septage, as
defined in s.
NR 162.003 (68). The department may determine that a
lift station pumping all of the wastewater flow directly to the wastewater
treatment plant with no other influent pump at the plant site is part of a
project that takes place inside the fence. The department may also determine
that other facilities, such as a septage receiving station that conveys the
septage directly into the wastewater treatment plant, are considered part of
the work inside the fence.
b.
Projects for which construction takes place outside of the fence of the
wastewater treatment plant that are necessary to maintain the integrity and
performance of wastewater treatment works facilities serving the municipality,
including sanitary sewer replacement or rehabilitation, sanitary sewer lining,
publicly-owned lateral lining, lift station or headworks upgrades, and
construction of new interceptors, lift stations, pretreatment facilities,
septage receiving stations, and other treatment works facilities outside of the
fence of the wastewater treatment plant.
2. The project is necessary to achieve
compliance with an enforceable wastewater requirement changed or established
after May 17, 1988, if the municipality is in substantial compliance with its
permit issued under ch. 283, Stats.
3. The project is necessary to eliminate
actual or imminent pollution of groundwater or surface water or a threat to
human health in unsewered areas within a municipality. All of the following
types of projects are included under this subdivision:
a. Projects for construction of a new
wastewater treatment plant or upgrade of an existing plant to accept and treat
wastewater from a previously unsewered area, such as projects to build or add
capacity to clarifiers, aeration basins, stabilization ponds, or sludge
facilities.
b. Sewage collection
system projects to install sewer pipes where there were none and interceptors
to carry wastewater to a new or existing wastewater treatment plant.
Note: Traditional wastewater treatment plant
and collection system projects are those that use common infrastructure and
processes to collect and treat wastewater, including pipes to collect
wastewater from homes and businesses and carry the water to a treatment plant
that uses techniques and equipment to filter and settle out solids, aerate the
water to encourage natural processes of growth of bacteria and other organisms
to consume much of the waste, disinfect the processed water, and process the
sludge removed from the wastewater. Traditional projects tend to collect and
treat point-source pollution only, unless storm sewers contribute to the flow
of water to the wastewater treatment plant or the system has infiltration or
inflow problems. The purpose of some traditional projects is to fix these types
of excess flow issues. Traditional wastewater treatment is discussed in the
Primer for Municipal Wastewater Treatment Systems, Publication EPA
832-R-04-001, dated September 2004, available on the U.S. environmental
protection agency's website at:
https://www.epa.gov/sites/default/files/2015-09/documents/primer.pdf.
(b)
Individual
wastewater treatment systems.
1. A
municipality may receive interest rate subsidy under this subchapter for a
project that consists of individual systems that serve one or more properties
for the purpose of treating sanitary waste if all of the following apply:
a. The municipality owns each individual
system.
b. The municipality is
responsible for the proper installation, operation, and maintenance of each
individual system.
c. The
municipality has unlimited access to each individual system at all reasonable
times for the purposes of inspection, monitoring, construction, maintenance,
operation, rehabilitation, and replacement of the system.
d. The municipality establishes a
comprehensive program for the regulation, inspection, operation, and
maintenance of individual systems and for monitoring the impact of the systems
on the groundwater where required by the department.
e. The municipality complies with all other
applicable requirements, limitations, and conditions for projects funded under
this subchapter.
2. The
access required under subd. 1. c. shall be established through easements,
covenants running with the land, or ordinance. The department may require that
the program established under subd. 1. d. include periodic testing of water
from existing potable water wells and monitoring of aquifers in the
area.
(c)
Storm
water projects.
1. A municipality
may receive interest rate subsidy under this subchapter for a publicly owned
project necessary to control storm water runoff pollution in order to achieve
water quality standards, including publicly-owned storm water management
projects on public or private land that are required by any of the following:
a. A WPDES storm water permit issued under
subch. I of ch. NR 216.
b. A
performance standard delineated in ch. NR 151.
c. A storm water management plan or other
applicable plan approved by the department for purposes of managing
runoff.
2. A project that
is eligible under subd. 1. may consist of individual BMPs on private land that
treat runoff and serve one or more private properties if all of the following
apply:
a. The municipality owns each
individual BMP.
b. The municipality
is responsible for the proper installation, operation, and maintenance of each
individual BMP.
c. The municipality
has unlimited access to each individual BMP at all reasonable times for the
purposes of inspection, monitoring, construction, maintenance, operation,
rehabilitation, and replacement of the BMP.
d. The municipality establishes a
comprehensive program for the regulation, inspection, operation, and
maintenance of individual BMPs, and for monitoring the impact of the BMPs on
the groundwater where required by the department.
e. The municipality complies with all other
applicable requirements, limitations, and conditions for projects funded under
this chapter.
3. The
access required under subd. 2. c. shall be established through easements,
ordinance, or covenants running with the land.
4. The department may require that the
program established under subd. 2. d. includes periodic testing of water from
existing potable water wells and monitoring of aquifers in the area.
(2) INELIGIBLE PROJECTS.
The department may determine that an entire project or a portion of a project
is ineligible for CWFP interest rate subsidy. If the department determines that
a portion of a project is ineligible, it shall specifically identify the
ineligible portion and the associated costs, or prorate the amount of interest
rate subsidy to be provided to reflect the appropriate proportion of eligible
to ineligible project costs, or both, in the interest rate subsidy agreement.
All of the following projects or portions of projects are not eligible to
receive financial assistance under this subchapter:
(a) Projects that are found ineligible for
financing by the BCPL.
(b) Projects
of a municipality that is failing to substantially comply with applicable
conditions or requirements of s.
281.58 or
281.59, Stats., ch. Adm 35, this
chapter, an existing financial assistance agreement with the CWFP or
Wisconsin's safe drinking water loan program under s.
281.61, Stats., or an interest
rate subsidy agreement, or with the terms of a federal or state grant used to
pay the costs to plan, design, or construct a treatment works or BMP.
(c) As specified in s.
281.58 (8) (a) 2, Stats., privately-owned connection
laterals and sewer lines that transport wastewater from structures to
municipally-owned or privately-owned wastewater systems.
(d) Public sanitary sewer mains,
interceptors, and individual systems that exclusively serve development not in
existence as of the date the department receives an interest rate subsidy
application submitted by a municipality under this subchapter.
(e) Any project from which no construction
costs are to be funded through the CWFP, unless another governmental agency is
providing financing for the construction costs and the department receives
acceptable documentation of the other agency's commitment, as determined by the
department, except if purchasing existing treatment works is the general scope
of the project.
(f) Dams, pipes,
conveyance systems, and BMPs, including storm sewer rerouting and land
acquisition, when intended solely for drainage and flood control.
(g) Any project in an unsewered municipality
that will be disposing of wastewater in the treatment works of another
municipality and has not executed an intermunicipal agreement under s.
66.0301, Stats., with the other
municipality to receive, treat, and dispose of the wastewater.
(h) Projects that have been substantially
complete for 3 years or longer.
(i)
Any project that includes 2 or more municipalities that utilize shared or
interconnected treatment works or a BMP, unless the municipalities served by
the project execute an intermunicipal agreement that meets the requirements
described in s.
NR 162.05 (4)
(h) for a wastewater project or s.
NR 162.24 (3)
(h) for a storm water project. This paragraph
does not apply to a metropolitan sewerage district in which all municipalities
being served have been annexed into the sewerage district or to a situation in
which the intermunicipal exception under s.
NR 162.05 (5) has been met.
