Virginia Regulatory Town Hall
Agency
Department of Environmental Quality
Board
State Water Control Board

General Notice
Public Comment Period and Public Meeting - FY 2018 Virginia Clean Water Revolving Loan Fund Intended Use Plan and Project Priority List
Date Posted: 9/14/2017
Expiration Date: 10/26/2017
Submitted to Registrar for publication: YES
No comment forum defined for this notice.

Introduction: Section 606(c) of the Water Quality Act of 1987 requires the State to develop an Intended Use Plan (IUP) that identifies the uses of its Clean Water Revolving Loan Fund and to prepare a list of projects targeted for financial assistance with those funds.  Following public comment and final Board action, the list of targeted projects for financial assistance becomes the state’s yearly clean water revolving loan Project Priority List (PPL) in the IUP.

FY 2018 Program Development:  On May 30, 2017 the staff solicited applications from the Commonwealth’s localities and wastewater authorities as well as potential land conservation applicants and Brownfield remediation clientele.  July 14, 2017 was established as the deadline for receiving applications.  Based on this solicitation, DEQ received twenty-one (21) wastewater improvement applications requesting $99,546,845, three (3) application for a stormwater management projects ($4,147,751), and two (2) land conservation applications for an additional $2,049,506, bringing the total amount requested to $105,744,102. 

All 21 wastewater applications were evaluated in accordance with the program's Funding Distribution Criteria.  In keeping with the program objectives and funding prioritization criteria, the staff reviewed project type and impact on state waters, the locality's compliance history and fiscal stress, and the projects’ readiness-to-proceed.  The 3 stormwater applications were reviewed in accordance with the Board’s Priority Ranking Criteria for Stormwater projects.  Both land conservation applications were reviewed using the Board’s evaluation criteria and the staff also received input from the Department of Conservation and Recreation in accordance with the Board guidelines and state law.  

The list of applications in Attachment A is shown in priority funding order based on the Board’s prioritization criteria for each project type.  Note that each project type (wastewater, stormwater, land conservation) has separate priority ranking point systems that are not intended to be numerically compared from one type to the other.  The recommended project funding list shown below and in Attachment B provides funding for all the applications received.  All applications are considered to be of good quality and should provide significant water quality and/or environmental improvement.  The staff is recommending that the list be tentatively adopted, subject to the verification of information in the loan applications and public review and comment. 

The list of Applications and the Target Funding List are available at:  http://www.deq.virginia.gov/Programs/Water/CleanWaterFinancingAssistance/FY2018AnnualSolicitation.aspx

Public Participation:  DEQ is presenting the draft list of targeted FY 2018 loan recipients for public review and comment.  A public meeting will be held at 10:00 AM on Thursday, October 26, 2017 in the 11th Floor Conference Room, 629 East Main Street, Richmond, Virginia 23219.  The public review and comment period will end immediately following the public meeting.  Comments or questions should be directed to DEQ staff person listed. Written comments should include the name, address and telephone number of the presenter.


Contact Information
Name / Title: Walter Gills  / Clean Water Financing and Assistance Program
Address: Department of Environmental Quality
P.O. Box 1105
Richmond, 23218
Email Address: Walter.Gills@deq.virginia.gov
Telephone: (804)698-4133    FAX: ()-    TDD: ()-