33 Miss. Code. R. 19-V
The SDWA allows each state to set-aside up to 31 percent of its federal Cap grant to support non-project-related drinking water programs which includes administration of the loan program, technical assistance to public water systems, state program management, and other special activities. The FFY-2023 EC Capitalization Grant amount of $9,568,000, the state plans to use $1,860,466 of the FFY-2023 EC Capitalization grant to support set-aside activities, further defined in the following Sections A and B. These non-project-related programs will be operated by MSDH within the agency itself or through contracts with other agencies or organizations. Contracts between the MSDH and other agencies or organizations will be approved by the Board. Work plans showing how the set-asides funds will be expended are included as appendices within this EC IUP; additionally, progress reports will be included in the Annual Report. The state has elected not to take set-asides for Small Systems Technical Assistance and State Program Management from the FFY-2023 EC Cap Grant but reserves the right to make revisions to utilize additional funds from this set-aside.
The SDWA-DWSRF amendments in the 2017 Water Infrastructure Improvements for the Nation Act (Pub. L. 114-332) (2017 WIIN Act - EPA memorandum dated June 6, 2017) states that the Administrative Set-Asides that can be taken the greatest of: $400,000, 1/5 percent of the current valuation of the fund, or an amount equal to 4 percent of all grant awards to the fund for the fiscal year. The EPA Combined SRF BIL Implementation Memo dated March 8, 2022, states that set-asides for the EC Cap Grant are consistent with the DWSRF regulations. The State plans to use the maximum allowable (4%) for "Administrative" purposes from the FFY-2023 EC Cap Grant.
The state will continue to exercise its right to reserve the administrative amounts from previous Cap Grants. Reserving previous years' 4% administrative set-aside can ensure that the Program will continue to operate with an adequate DWSIRLF staff for proper management of the Program.
The state will use the Small Systems Technical Assistance (up to 2%) set-aside from the BIL EC FFY-2023 Cap Grant to provide funding for EC Test to ultra small systems serving a population of 300 or less. With approval by the Board, the state intends to use this set-aside to fund a contract for providing professional services to water systems with a population of less than 300. This assistance with will be available on a first-come, first-serve basis to water systems serving a population of 300 or less. More detail is provided in the State of Mississippi's Set-Aside Work Plan included as Appendix E to this IUP.
The state does not intend to use this set-aside from the FFY-2023 EC Cap grant, as authorized by Section 1452(g) (2) of the Safe Drinking Water Act of 1996 for State Program Management related to LCRR and LSLR. The program reserves the right to these funds in amended or future application to be used for Public Water System Supervision (PWSS) activities conducted under Section 1443(a) of the Act.
The state intends to use the first 10% of the 15% set-aside amount which is allowed from the FFY-2023 BIL EC Cap grant to provide funding for sampling for PFAS for water systems with population less than 1,000 but greater than 300 that are not currently required to sample for UCMR-5.
The state intends to use the remaining 5% of the 15% set-aside amount which is allowed from the FFY-2023 EC Cap grant to provide funding for sampling for PFAS for water systems with population less than 3,300 and greater than or equal to 1,000 that are not currently required to sample for UCMR-5.
33 Miss. Code. R. 19-V