In the waning hours of this year's lame duck session, two bills that will provide critical funding for local sewer infrastructure projects and to clean up abandoned brownfield sites received final approval in the House and Senate and were sent to the Governor. Senate Bill 1443 and House Bill 6416 will provide millions of dollars, over the next three years, to fund municipal sewer projects, to renew a grant program designed to assist communities in applying for sewer project financing, to extend the state's municipal brownfield grant and loan program, and to continue clean up activities at over a hundred brownfield sites throughout the state. These bills are part of a larger package that reforms the whole brownfield redevelopment process. The League has spent the better part of the last year working closely with key legislators in the House and Senate to ensure that the language in these bills provide the utmost benefit to communities of all sizes across the state. This legislation now moves on to the Governor's desk, where her swift approval is expected.
Specifically, the bills provide:
- $40 million to renew the successful S-2 grant program from 2005. Grants of up to $1 million per community to fund 90% of costs incurred to complete an application for sewer project loan assistance. Additional flexibility has been written in to this round of grants by allowing communities to receive a grant regardless of their final source of financing for the project and allowing a community to have two years to obtain final financing before being required to repay a grant.
- $50 million of additional State Revolving Fund (SRF) projects will receive funding in the current year. The DNRE had previously announced a fundable range of $160 million for the current fiscal year, that range will now be expanded to fund $210 million worth of projects. For next year, the fundable range will be at least $259 million (an expansion of another $50 million). In FY 2012-13 the language in the bill requires the DNRE to fund ALL eligible projects applying for assistance from the SRF.
- $140 million is available to the DNRE over the next three fiscal years to fund response activities at identified brownfield sites to address non-point source water pollution. This money may only be spent at brownfield facilities located within the boundaries of a publicly owned sanitary sewer system. For the DNRE to receive any of the funds allocated to the third year of support, they must show that they have complied with efforts to increase investment in sewer projects, alter the sewer project financing mechanisms to promote pollution prevention an risk reduction activities, and target funds to further economic development goals.
- $10 million is allocated to the municipal brownfield redevelopment grant and loan program, $5 million for grants and $5 million for loans to municipalities.
- Finally, the League was successful in advocating for the inclusion of a State Water Pollution Control Revolving Fund Advisory Committee tasked with making recommendations to re-engineer the state's clean water financing system (SRF). This committee will be made up of 14 members, a majority of which are users of the financing system. The League was the only organization to obtain three seats on this council, with additional seats going to a regional planning authority and to League affiliate organizations, the MI Water Environment Association and the American Water Works Association. Municipal interests should be well represented on this council and a major force in deciding the final recommendations. The council is directed to examine changes to the SRF to streamline application requirements, lower financing costs, focus on asset management, examine additional grant opportunities, and recommend other financing mechanisms to further investment in clean water infrastructure improvements.
Chris Hackbarth handles environmental issues for the Michigan Municipal League. Chris can be reached at 517-908-0303, or by email at chackbarth@mml.org.
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