Agenda - Council - 09/13/2022 - Laserfiche WebLink

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comments from recipients requesting additional project categories to be considered eligible, indicating a potential cost to maintaining alignment with the CWSRF and DWSRF. For the final rule, Treasury has expanded eligibility to include several additional project types beyond those covered by the CWSRF and DWSRF. Treasury believes that expanded eligibility will benefit recipients by allowing them additional flexibility to pursue beneficial projects, including project categories that support the provision of drinking water and the removal, management, and treatment of wastewater and stormwater: additional stormwater management projects, private well infrastructure, additional projects that address lead in water, and certain dam and reservoir rehabilitation projects undertaken to address the provision of drinking water. A potential cost of this approach is that uses beyond the CSWRF and DWSRF may have less public guidance available to understand project eligibilities. However, Treasury anticipates that this eligibility expansion will provide a net benefit to recipients by allowing them to pursue projects relevant to their goals that were ineligible under the interim final rule. The expansion to allow private well infrastructure may also affect the distributional impact of SLFRF. Private wells disproportionately serve rural Americans, including low-income households, and expanding eligibility to include this use may allow SLFRF funds to benefit such households. While distributional impacts are uncertain, Treasury believes that the potential for benefits to accrue to rural and low-income households makes it important to clarify that these types of projects are eligible. 394