I 

111TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION H. R. 6353 

To amend the Federal Water Pollution Control Act to assist municipalities 

that would experience a significant hardship raising the revenue necessary 

to finance projects and activities for the construction of wastewater 

treatment works, and for other purposes. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

SEPTEMBER 29, 2010 

Mr. LATTA (for himself and Mr. LATOURETTE) introduced the following bill; 

which was referred to the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure 

A BILL 

To amend the Federal Water Pollution Control Act to assist 

municipalities that would experience a significant hardship raising the revenue necessary to finance projects 

and activities for the construction of wastewater treatment works, and for other purposes. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Clean Water Afford5 ability Act of 2010’’. 


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1 SEC. 2. CAPITALIZATION GRANT AGREEMENTS. 

2 Section 602(b) of the Federal Water Pollution Con3 trol Act (33 U.S.C. 1382(b)) is amended— 

4 (1) by striking ‘‘and’’ at the end of paragraph 

5 (9); 

6 (2) by striking the period at the end of para7 graph (10) and inserting ‘‘; and’’; and 

8 (3) by adding at the end the following: 

9 ‘‘(11) the State will use at least 15 percent of 

10 the amount of each capitalization grant received by 

11 the State under this title after September 30, 2011, 

12 to provide assistance to municipalities of fewer than 

13 10,000 individuals that meet the affordability cri14 teria established by the State under section 

15 603(i)(2) for activities included on the State’s pri16 ority list established under section 603(g), to the ex17 tent that there are sufficient applications for such 

18 assistance.’’. 

19 SEC. 3. WATER POLLUTION CONTROL REVOLVING LOAN 

20 FUNDS. 

21 (a) EXTENDED REPAYMENT PERIOD.—Section 

22 603(d)(1) of the Federal Water Pollution Control Act (33 

23 U.S.C. 1383(d)(1)) is amended— 

24 (1) in subparagraph (A) by striking ‘‘20 years’’ 

25 and inserting ‘‘the lesser of 30 years or the design 


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1 life of the project to be financed with the proceeds 

2 of the loan’’; and 

3 (2) in subparagraph (B) by striking ‘‘not later 

4 than 20 years after project completion’’ and insert5 ing ‘‘upon the expiration of the term of the loan’’. 

6 (b) ADDITIONAL SUBSIDIZATION.—Section 603 of 

7 such Act (33 U.S.C. 1383) is amended by adding at the 

8 end the following: 

9 ‘‘(i) ADDITIONAL SUBSIDIZATION.— 

10 ‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—In any case in which a 

11 State provides assistance to a municipality or inter12 municipal, interstate, or State agency under sub13 section (d), the State may provide additional sub14 sidization, including forgiveness of principal and 

15 negative interest loans to benefit a municipality 

16 that— 

17 ‘‘(A) meets the State’s affordability criteria 

18 established under paragraph (2); or 

19 ‘‘(B) does not meet the State’s afford20 ability criteria if the recipient— 

21 ‘‘(i) seeks additional subsidization to 

22 benefit individual ratepayers in the resi23 dential user rate class; 

24 ‘‘(ii) demonstrates to the State that 

25 such ratepayers will experience a signifiVerDate Mar 15 2010 00:13 Oct 14, 2010 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H6353.IH H6353

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1 cant hardship from the increase in rates 

2 necessary to finance the project or activity 

3 for which assistance is sought; and 

4 ‘‘(iii) ensures, as part of an assistance 

5 agreement between the State and the re6 cipient, that the additional subsidization 

7 provided under this paragraph is directed 

8 through a user charge rate system (or 

9 other appropriate method) to such rate10 payers; or 

11 ‘‘(2) AFFORDABILITY CRITERIA.— 

12 ‘‘(A) ESTABLISHMENT.—On or before Sep13 tember 30, 2011, and after providing notice 

14 and an opportunity for public comment, a State 

15 shall establish affordability criteria to assist in 

16 identifying municipalities that would experience 

17 a significant hardship raising the revenue nec18 essary to finance a project or activity eligible 

19 for assistance under section 603(c)(1) if addi20 tional subsidization is not provided. Such cri21 teria shall be based on income data, population 

22 trends, and other data determined relevant by 

23 the State, including whether the project or ac24 tivity is to be carried out in an economically 

25 distressed area, as described in section 301 of 


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1 the Public Works and Economic Development 

2 Act of 1965 (42 U.S.C. 3161). 

3 ‘‘(B) EXISTING CRITERIA.—If a State has 

4 previously established, after providing notice 

5 and an opportunity for public comment, afford6 ability criteria that meet the requirements of 

7 subparagraph (A), the State may use the cri8 teria for the purposes of this subsection. For 

9 purposes of this Act, any such criteria shall be 

10 treated as affordability criteria established 

11 under this paragraph. 

12 ‘‘(C) INFORMATION TO ASSIST STATES.— 

13 The Administrator may publish information to 

14 assist States in establishing affordability cri15 teria under subparagraph (A). 

16 ‘‘(3) LIMITATION.—The total amount of addi17 tional subsidization provided under this subsection 

18 by a State may not exceed 30 percent of the total 

19 amount of capitalization grants received by the State 

20 under this title in fiscal years beginning after Sep21 tember 30, 2011.’’. 

22 SEC. 4. UPDATING OF GUIDANCE. 

23 (a) DEFINITIONS.—In this section, the following defi24 nitions apply: 


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1 (1) ADMINISTRATOR.—The term ‘‘Adminis2 trator’’ means the Administrator of the Environ3 mental Protection Agency. 

4 (2) AFFORDABILITY.—The term ‘‘affordability’’ 

5 means, with respect to payment of a utility bill, a 

6 measure of whether an individual customer or house7 hold can pay the bill without undue hardship or un8 reasonable sacrifice in the essential lifestyle or 

9 spending patterns of the individual or household, as 

10 determined by the Administrator. 

11 (3) FINANCIAL CAPABILITY.—The term ‘‘finan12 cial capability’’ means the financial capability of a 

13 community to make investments necessary to make 

14 water quality-related improvements, taking into con15 sideration the criteria described in subsection 

16 (b)(2)(A). 

17 (4) GUIDANCE.—The term ‘‘guidance’’ means 

18 the guidance published by the Administrator entitled 

19 ‘‘Combined Sewer Overflows—Guidance for Finan20 cial Capability Assessment and Schedule Develop21 ment’’ and dated February 1997, as applicable to 

22 combined sewer overflows and sanitary sewer over23 flows. 

24 (b) UPDATING.— 


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1 (1) IN GENERAL.—Not later than one year 

2 after the date of enactment of this Act, the Adminis3 trator shall update the guidance to ensure that the 

4 evaluations by the Administrator of financial capa5 bility assessment and schedule development meet the 

6 criteria described in paragraph (2). 

7 (2) CRITERIA.—The criteria described in this 

8 paragraph are that, under the updated guidance— 

9 (A) in assessing the financial capability of 

10 a community— 

11 (i) greater emphasis should be placed 

12 on local economic conditions; 

13 (ii) for regional systems, consideration 

14 should be given to the economic conditions 

15 of political jurisdictions and significant de16 mographic groups within each region; 

17 (iii) prescriptive formulas for use in 

18 calculating financial capability and thresh19 olds for expenditure should not be consid20 ered to be the only indicator of the finan21 cial capability of a community; 

22 (iv) site-specific local conditions 

23 should be taken into consideration in ana24 lyzing financial capability; 


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1 (v) a single measure of financial capa2 bility or affordability (such as median 

3 household income) should be viewed in the 

4 context of other economic measures, rather 

5 than as a threshold to be achieved; and 

6 (vi)(I) consideration should be given 

7 to the economic outlook of a community, 

8 including the potential impact of program 

9 requirements over time, in the development 

10 of implementation schedules; and 

11 (II) the assessment should take into 

12 consideration other essential community 

13 investments relating to water quality im14 provements; 

15 (B) with respect to the timing of imple16 mentation of water quality-related improve17 ments— 

18 (i) environmental improvement imple19 mentation schedules should be structured 

20 to mitigate the potential adverse impact on 

21 distressed populations resulting from the 

22 costs of the improvements; and 

23 (ii) implementation schedules should 

24 reflect local community financial conditions 

25 and economic impacts; 


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1 (C) with respect to implementation of 

2 methodologies— 

3 (i) a determination of local financial 

4 capability may be achieved through an 

5 evaluation of an array of factors the rel6 ative importance of which may vary across 

7 regions and localities; and 

8 (ii) an appropriate methodology 

9 should give consideration to such various 

10 factors as are appropriate to recognize the 

11 prevailing and projected economic concerns 

12 in a community; and 

13 (D) the residential indicator should be re14 vised to include— 

15 (i) a consideration of costs imposed 

16 upon ratepayers for essential utilities; 

17 (ii) increased consideration and quan18 tification of local community-imposed costs 

19 in regional systems; 

20 (iii) a mechanism to assess impacts on 

21 communities with disparate economic con22 ditions throughout the entire service area 

23 of a utility; 

24 (iv) a consideration of the industrial 

25 and population trends of a community; 


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1 (v) recognition that— 

2 (I) the median household income 

3 of a service area reflects a numerical 

4 median rather than the distribution of 

5 incomes within the service area; and 

6 (II) more representative methods 

7 of determining affordability, such as 

8 shelter costs, essential utility pay9 ments, State affordability criteria, and 

10 State and local tax efforts, should be 

11 considered; 

12 (vi) a consideration of low-income 

13 ratepayer percentages; and 

14 (vii) impacts relating to program de15 livery, such as water quality infrastructure 

16 market saturation and program manage17 ment. 

18 (3) IMPLEMENTATION.—The updated guidance 

19 should indicate that, in a case in which a previously 

20 approved long-term control plan or associated en21 forceable agreement allows for modification of the 

22 plan or terms of the agreement (including financial 

23 capability considerations), and all parties are in 

24 agreement that a change is needed or that the plan 

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1 dress changes in the economic or financial status of 

2 the community since the effective date of the plan or 

3 agreement, reconsideration and modification of fi4 nancial capability determinations and implementa5 tion schedules based on the criteria described in 

6 paragraph (2) is appropriate. 

7 (c) PUBLICATION AND SUBMISSION.—Upon comple8 tion of the updating of guidance under subsection (b), the 

9 Administrator shall publish in the Federal Register and 

10 submit to the Committee on Environment and Public 

11 Works of the Senate and the Committee on Transpor12 tation and Infrastructure of the House of Representatives 

13 the updated guidance. 

Æ 


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