^£D srx • A v lSi U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Office of Inspector General At a Glance 12-R-0109 December 8, 2011 Why We Did This Review The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Office of Inspector General conducts site visits of American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Recovery Act) clean water and drinking water projects. The purpose of the visits is to confirm compliance with selected Recovery Act requirements. We selected the Elizabeth City Well Field Expansion Project in Elizabeth City, North Carolina, for review. Background The city received a $2,366,255 Recovery Act loan from the North Carolina Department of Environment and Natural Resources (NCDENR) under the Drinking Water State Revolving Fund program. The loan included $1,183,127 in principal forgiveness. The city will expand its well field with four new wells to meet the state's 12 hour/day maximum pumping requirement. American Recovery and Reinvestment Act Site Visit of the Elizabeth City Well Field Expansion Project, Elizabeth City, North Carolina What We Found We conducted an unannounced site visit of the Elizabeth City Well Field Expansion Project in Elizabeth City, North Carolina, in July 2010. We toured the project site; interviewed city, NCDENR, engineering firm, and prime contractor and subcontractor personnel; and reviewed documentation related to Recovery Act requirements. In the draft report, we questioned whether three manufactured goods used on the project met the Buy American requirements of Section 1605 of the Recovery Act, and whether engineering costs claimed were allocable to the Recovery Act project. In response to the draft report, the city provided additional information to support Buy American compliance for one item. The city took corrective action and added the two remaining items to the project's Buy American de minimis waiver list. We reviewed the de minimis list and concurred with the action taken by the city to include those items on the list. We analyzed additional engineering support received from Region 4 and the city, and agree that the costs incurred prior to the Recovery Act were needed to make the project shovel-ready and, therefore, were allocable to the project. No additional issues or concerns came to our attention that would require action from the city, NCDENR, or the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. For further information, contact our Office of Congressional and Public Affairs at (202) 566-2391. The full report is at: www.epa.qov/oiq/reports/2012/ 20111208-12-R-0109.pdf ------- |