environmental facts
FEDERAL GRANTS FOR THE CONSTRUCTION OF MUNICIPAL WASTE WATER TREATMENT FACILITIES
LEGISLATIVE AUTHORITY:
The Federal Water Pollution Control Act Amendments of 1972
(Public Law 92-500) authorizes the Environmental Protection Agency
(EPA) to award grants in the amount of 75 percent of the allowable
project costs for the construction of publicly owned and operated
waste water treatment works.
WHO MAY APPLY FOR GRANTS:
Municipalities, intermunicipal agencies, States, or interstate
agencies may apply for grants. A municipality is any city, town,
borough, county, parish, district (but excluding a school district),
association, or other public body (including an intermunicipal agency
of two or more of the foregoing entities) created by or pursuant to
State law, or an Indian tribe or an authorized Indian tribal organ-
ization, having jurisdiction over disposal of sewage, industrial
wastes, or a designated and approved management agency under Section
208 of the Act.
PROJECTS ELIGIBLE FOR GRANTS:
In general, projects eligible for Federal assistance include
those to construct new treatment plants, to expand or improve existing
plants, to construct interceptor and outfall sewer lines or to provide
pumping, power, and other equipment necessary to operate a sewage
treatment system. Under certain conditions, sewage collection
systems and projects to control pollution from combined sewers may
also receive Federal assistance.
ALLOWABLE PROJECT COSTS:
Allocable project costs that are reasonable and necessary for
the construction of a treatment works are allowable. Necessary costs
may include, but are not limited to:
1. Planning directly related to the feasibility of the treatment
works;
2. Engineering, architectural, legal, fiscal, or economic
investigations or studies;
3. Surveys, designs, plans, construction drawings and specifications
for project related construction;
4. Cost of land used directly as a part of the treatment process
or for disposal of residues.
UNALLOWABLE COSTS:
Costs that are*not necessary for the construction of a treatment
works project are not allowable. Such costs include, but are not
limited to:
UNITED STATES ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY • WASHINGTON, D.C. 20460
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1. Basin or areawide planning not directly related to the project;
2. Costs outside the scope of the Federally approved project;
3. Ordinary operating expenses of local government, such as salaries
and expenses of a mayor, city council members, or city attorney;
4. Site acquisition (for example, sewer rights-of-way, sewage
treatment plant sites, sanitary landfills, etc.);
5. Interest on bonds or any other form of indebtedness required
to finance the grantee's share of project costs.
TREATMENT OF INDUSTRIAL WASTES BY THE MUNICIPALITY:
Assistance may be given to projects that will collect or treat
industrial wastes; however, the applicant must adopt a system of
charges to assure that the industrial users pay their proportionate
share of operation, maintenance, and expenses as well as their allocable
share of the Federal construction grant.
WHEN TO APPLY FOR FEDERAL GRANTS:
Applications for Federal assistance may be made at various stages
in the project development process:
1. at the initiation or completion of feasibility reports, including
an analysis of sewer system infiltration/inflow,
2. at the initiation or completion of final construction drawings
and design specifications, including infiltration/inflow studies, and,
as appropriate, a sewer system evaluation study, and
3. for construction of the treatment works.
In all cases, the proposed project must be in accordance with the
planning requirements and with the State priority process.
WHERE TO APPLY FOR FEDERAL GRANTS:
Formal applications for PL 92-500 grants must be made through
the appropriate State Water Pollution Control Agency. That agency
will also supply information on State requirements and assistance
in solving water pollution problems.
July 1973
U. S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 1973 O - 508-995
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