Ohio Governor's Office Announces Federal Recovery Act Update

Columbus,OH--The Ohio Governor’s Office today announced an update to the federal stimulus disbursement process for drinking water and water pollution control infrastructure stimulus projects provided to the state through existing revolving loan funding formulas.

Ohio EPA currently estimates distribution of drinking water and water pollution control stimulus project funds will total approximately $276.5 million. Currently, Ohio EPA has received project funding requests for approximately $4 billion through Recovery.ohio.gov.

Article continues below...

US EPA issued final guidance to states on Monday, March 2, 2009, regarding the award and administration of stimulus funds from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) of 2009. In this guidance US EPA recommends that states submit applications as soon as possible to allow for states to meet ARRA and statutory deadlines.

"These important resources will create construction jobs and further develop Ohio’s water infrastructure to protect human health and the environment,” Governor Ted Strickland said. “Both the water pollution control and drinking water infrastructure resources will help to ensure a safe and adequate supply of drinking water for Ohioans.”

All applicants interested in completing an Ohio EPA drinking water or water pollution control project interest submission for consideration must observe the following dates and deadlines:

March 6, 2009 by 5 PM: Final date to submit expressions of interest for drinking water and water pollution control infrastructure projects to http://recovery.ohio.gov/. Applicants should be sure to use the Infrastructure category and appropriate subcategory (either Drinking Water State Revolving Fund or Clean Water State Revolving Fund) provided on the web based form.

March 13, 2009 by 5 PM: All drinking water infrastructure pre-applications and water pollution control infrastructure nomination forms must be completed and provided to Ohio EPA.

Note that these deadlines apply to the drinking water and water pollution control funds only, not other infrastructure elements of Ohio’s share of the stimulus resources. For example, these deadlines to do not apply to other funding streams through Ohio EPA, such as the National Clean Diesel Campaign.

Ohio EPA will continue to contact applicants who submit (or have already submitted) expressions of interest for drinking water and water pollution control projects to Recovery.ohio.gov.

Applicants who submit expressions of interest for drinking water infrastructure projects will be given information on how to access and complete a pre-application which should be completed and returned to the agency as soon as possible, but no later than March 13. Applicants seeking technical assistance from Ohio EPA on drinking water projects may contact: stacy.barna@epa.state.oh.us.

Applicants who submit expressions of interest for water pollution control projects will be given information on how to access and complete a nomination form which will need to be returned to the agency as soon as possible, but no later than March 13. (Note: Some applicants may have already received and/or completed the pre-application or nomination form.) Applicants seeking technical assistance from Ohio EPA on water pollution control projects may contact: becky.hegyi@epa.state.oh.us.

Once all applicants have completed their expression of interest and submitted their pre-application or nomination form, Ohio EPA will follow state and federal law and US EPA guidance to prioritize the list of projects for funding. Following this process, Ohio EPA will release a draft Intended Use Plan (IUP) for both the drinking water and water pollution control projects. The draft IUP will include a project priority list and will be subject to public notice, public comment and public hearing requirements.

As of today, 15,000 total project interest forms have been submitted through Recovery.ohio.gov, Ohio’s virtual headquarters for information regarding the infrastructure and other unbudgeted elements of the ARRA, which has been online for three weeks.

Additional information and links to the federal requirements can be found at www.recovery.ohio.gov.

Source: Ohio Governor