33 Miss. Code. R. 16-VI
The SDWA provides the state with the flexibility to determine how to best utilize the Cap grant. To meet the particular and unique issues facing the public water systems in Mississippi, SDWA requirements allow states to give priority to those projects which:
Emergency Projects
The Project Priority List may be amended during the year for declarations of emergencies designated by the Governor (pursuant to § 33-15-11(b)(17)) or the State Health Officer (pursuant to § 41-26-1 et sec.). The emergency project must meet all eligibility and loan requirements, but the additional public review and comment requirement may be waived. Once an emergency has been declared and the project is determined eligible, Emergency projects will take priority over all other project categories. Any emergency project must be documented in the DWSRF Annual Report and is subject to EPA oversight review.
Standard DWSRF Projects
Projects in Category I are funded each year to the extent funds are available. Projects in Categories II through XI are ranked in priority order; that is, all Category II projects are ranked higher than Category III projects, etc. Ranking is established in like manner through all remaining categories. Adjustments are made as necessary to comply with small community set-aside provisions of the Federal SDWA and as established by the Board [Section 1542(a) (2) of SDWA]. As stated previously, the order of Categories II - XI is intended to give highest priority to those projects that address the most serious risks to human health. Projects within each category will be ranked as described in Section B. Due to the nature of the special appropriation Category I & Category II are not applicable.
Category III - Primary Drinking Water Standards
This category includes projects to facilitate compliance with Primary Drinking Water Standards. To qualify for this category, projects must correct deficiencies resulting in non-compliance with the primary drinking water standards. Depending on the nature of the project, additional treatment requirements may be necessary as part of the proposed project.
Category IV - One Well
This category includes projects to provide additional water supply to systems that have neither a backup well nor an MSDH-approved emergency tie-in to another system to ensure safe drinking water; thereby protecting the health of the existing population. Depending on the nature of the project, additional treatment requirements may be necessary as part of the proposed project.
Category V - Pressure Deficiencies
This category includes projects to correct documented deficiencies that result in existing systems routinely failing to maintain minimum acceptable dynamic pressure. Experience has shown that failure of water systems to maintain minimum acceptable dynamic pressure is the major cause of system contamination in Mississippi. System contamination that results from inadequate water system pressure is considered by the MSDH to be one of the most serious drinking water-related threats to public health in Mississippi.
Category VI - Source Water Protection Projects This category includes projects to manage potential sources of contaminants/pollutants and/or prevent contaminants/pollutants from reaching sources of drinking water. To be eligible for loan participation, potential contaminants/pollutants and source water protection areas must have been identified in the public water systems source water assessment plan report (swapr) prepared by the Mississippi department of environmental quality's groundwater planning branch (deq-gpb). If the public water system has not received its swapr from the deq-gpb yet, or has documentation that may change its swap, it shall provide in the facilities plan suitable documentation of potential sources of contaminants/pollutants that is acceptable to the deq-gpb before the project will be deemed eligible.
The projects will be ranked: first in order of the highest source water classification that would be negatively impacted by source water contaminants; secondly, within each classification in order of the public water systems susceptibility assessment ranking as determined by the deq-gpb; and thirdly, within each susceptibility assessment ranking in order of the highest number of connections served by the public water system. Source water classifications will be ranked in the following order: surface water sources; shallow (generally [LESS THAN EQUAL TO] 300' in depth) unconfined water wells; shallow (generally [LESS THAN EQUAL TO] 300' in depth) confined water wells; and deep confined water wells.
Category VII - System Capacity Expansion to Serve Existing Unserved Residences/Businesses
This category includes projects to either expand existing system capacity or construct a new drinking water system to ensure safe drinking water (source, treatment and/or distribution) to serve existing residences/businesses in currently unserved areas.
Category VIII - Back-up Water Supply Sources Projects
This category includes projects to provide additional supply to systems with insufficient back-up water supply sources to ensure safe drinking water, and thereby protect the health of the existing population. As a minimum, a system using ground water should be able to lose any one of the wells supplying the system and still maintain minimum acceptable dynamic pressure throughout the entire system.
Category IX - Existing Facilities Upgrades (Meeting Primary Standards)
This category includes projects to rehabilitate, replace, protect or upgrade deteriorated, worn, aged or obsolete equipment, facilities, etc., to assure continued, dependable operation of water systems where such systems are already meeting Primary Drinking Water Standards. Depending on the nature of the project, additional treatment requirements may be necessary as part of the proposed project.
Category X - Fluoride Addition
This category is for projects that either rehabilitate existing fluoride treatment facilities at well or treatment plant sites or add new facilities to existing well or treatment plants.
Category XI - Secondary Drinking Water Standards Projects This category includes projects to provide treatment that brings systems into compliance with Secondary Drinking Water Regulations. Depending on the nature of the project, additional treatment requirements may be necessary as part of the proposed project.
Category XII - Consolidation Projects
This category includes projects to consolidate separate systems into a single system for purposes other than those related to Categories II through IX. Consolidation will also be considered in establishing priority ranking within all categories, as described in the Priority Ranking Criteria in Section C.
Category XIII - Other
This category includes projects that do not meet the criteria of any other listed category and have been determined loan eligible in accordance with the DWSIRLF loan program regulations.
The criteria for ranking Standard DWSRF projects within each category is intended to give priority to projects that:
Benefit/Cost points assigned to each project will be determined using the following formula:
The number of benefiting connections must be included in the facilities plan submitted by the applicant; be defined as the sum of individual connections currently experiencing deficiencies that will be corrected by the improvement; and include only existing residences, businesses, and public buildings. Applicants must furnish information (including hydraulic analysis, if necessary) to support their estimate of the number of benefiting connections. The total eligible cost is in millions of dollars (i.e., $800,000 = $0.8 M).
An affordability factor will be assigned to each project to reflect the relative needs of applicants on a per household basis. The Benefit/Cost points calculated in Section C.1. will be adjusted using the affordability factor in the following formula:
The affordability factor used in the calculation is defined as the ratio of the "Median Household Income" (MHI) for the State of Mississippi ($49,111) to the MHI for the affected community. The affordability factor used in the calculation will be no less than 1.0 and no greater than 1.5.
Any project that includes consolidation (ownership and management) of separate existing systems into a single system will receive consolidation points equal to 0.5 times the Adjusted Benefit/Cost points assigned to the project. The purpose of assigning consolidation points is to promote reliability, efficiency and economy of scale that can be achieved with larger water systems while discouraging the proliferation of numerous separate small systems with their inherent inefficiencies and limitations. Projects, in any priority category, that do not include consolidation will receive zero consolidation points in the final calculation of total priority points.
Any project that includes scope of work to address critical design capacity issues (systems that are currently overloaded or within two (2) years of reaching their current design capacity, as determined by MSDH) will receive additional priority points equal to 25% of the Adjusted Benefit/Cost points assigned to the project. Documentation of the system capacity analysis and recommendations to address the design capacity issues must be addressed in the facilities plan to be eligible for these additional priority points.
The MSDH, with the Board's approval, has contracted with Mississippi State University Extension Service to provide both short-term and long-term assistance to designated water systems in the state based on their scores on the latest Capacity Assessment Form (CAF). This assistance is provided at no cost to the water systems.
Participation by the water systems in these assistance programs is voluntary; however, any water system that has participated in either of these assistance programs within the past two years will be eligible to receive additional priority points equal to 5% of their Adjusted Benefit/Cost Points. Water systems that have implemented all the recommendations made by Mississippi State University Extension Service will receive additional priority points equal to 5% of their Adjusted Benefit/Cost Points for a total of 10%. Documentation of participation in either of these assistance programs and implementation of the recommendations made by Mississippi State University Extension Service must be included in the facilities plan before additional priority points will be granted.
Any water system certifying and providing support of their Asset Management Plan's implementation or maintenance to MSDH will be eligible to receive additional priority points equal to 10% of their Adjusted Benefit/Cost Points.
Within each category, projects will be ranked in order based on the total points assigned the project using the following formula:
Projects receiving the most priority points will be given the highest ranking on the Priority List. In case of a tie in the number of priority points, projects with the lowest median household income will receive the highest ranking.
Following completion of the ranking process, the Priority List will be reviewed to determine if at least 15% of available funding for projects above the funding line is for public water systems which regularly serve fewer than 5,000 people, which the Board has defined as a small community for the purposes of this set-aside. If this is not the case, the Priority List will be adjusted by exchanging the lowest ranking projects above the funding line that serve 5,000 or more with the highest-ranking projects below the funding line that serve fewer than 5,000, until the 15% requirement is satisfied.
33 Miss. Code. R. 16-VI