31 Tex. Admin. Code § 375.1 - Definitions
The following words and terms have the following meanings when used in this chapter, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise. Words defined in Chapter 15 of the Texas Water Code and not defined here shall have the meanings provided by Chapter 15.
(1) Acquisition--The Applicant obtaining
interests in land that are necessary for construction or land that will be an
integral part of the treatment process (including land use for the storage of
treated wastewater in land treatment systems prior to land application) or will
be used for ultimate disposal of residues resulting from such treatment and
acquisition of other land.
(2)
Act--The Federal Water Pollution Control Act,
33 U.S.C. §§
1251 et seq.
(3) Alternative Delivery Guidance--A document
prepared by the Board after public review and comment and reviewed periodically
that identifies alternative methods of project delivery available to applicants
for financial assistance and the requirements for utilizing an alternative
delivery method.
(4) Applicant--The
entity applying for financial assistance from the CWSRF including:
(A) the entity that receives the financial
assistance, and
(B) the entity
legally responsible to repay the debt.
(5) Application--The information and
supporting documentation submitted by or on behalf of the Applicant that may be
used in consideration for financial assistance from the CWSRF or that the
executive administrator determines must be completed for consideration for
financial assistance from the CWSRF.
(6) Authorized representative--The signatory
agent authorized and directed by the Applicant's governing body to file the
application and to sign documents relating to the project, on behalf of the
Applicant.
(7) Board--The Texas
Water Development Board.
(8)
Bonds--All bonds, notes, certificates of obligation, and book-entry obligations
authorized to be issued by any political subdivision.
(9) Bypass--To pass over a higher ranked
project in favor of a lower ranked project to ensure that funds available are
utilized in a timely manner, to select an interrelated project, or to meet
statutory and capitalization grant requirements as delineated in the applicable
IUP.
(10) Capitalization grant--The
federal grant funds awarded annually by the EPA to the State for capitalization
of the CWSRF.
(11) Certification of
Trust--An instrument executed by a home rule municipality pursuant to Chapter
104, Local Government Code, governing the management of the financial
assistance proceeds in accordance with §
114.086, Texas Property
Code.
(12) Clean Water State
Revolving Fund (CWSRF)--The financial assistance program authorized by Texas
Water Code, Chapter 15, Subchapter J in accordance with the Act.
(13) Closing--The exchange of the Applicant's
approved debt instruments for CWSRF financial assistance.
(14) Commission--The Texas Commission on
Environmental Quality.
(15)
Commitment--An offer by the Board to provide financial assistance to an
Applicant as evidenced by a Board resolution.
(16) Construction--Any one or more of the
following: preliminary planning to determine the feasibility of treatment
works, engineering, architectural, legal, fiscal, or economic investigations or
studies, surveys, designs, plans, working drawings, specifications, procedures,
field testing of innovative or alternative wastewater treatment processes and
techniques meeting guidelines promulgated under
33 U.S.C. §
1314(d)(3), or other
necessary actions, erection, building, acquisition, alteration, remodeling,
improvement, or extension of treatment works or the inspection or supervision
of any of the foregoing items.
(17)
Construction account--A separate account created and maintained for the deposit
of financial assistance and utilized by the Applicant to pay eligible expenses
of the project.
(18) Construction
phase--The erection, acquisition, alteration, remodel, rehabilitation,
improvement, extension, or other man-made change necessary for an eligible
project or activity.
(19) Contract
documents--The engineering documentation relating to the project including
engineering drawings, maps, technical specifications, design reports,
instructions, and other contract conditions and forms that are in sufficient
detail to allow contractors to bid on the work.
(20) Cost and Effectiveness Analysis--The
study and evaluation of the cost and effectiveness of the processes, materials,
techniques, and technologies for carrying out the proposed project or activity;
and the selection, to the maximum extent practicable, of a project or activity
that maximizes the potential for efficient water use, reuse, recapture, and
conservation, and energy conservation; taking into account (i) the cost of
constructing the project or activity, (ii) the cost of operating and
maintaining the project or activity over the life of the project or activity,
and (iii) the cost of replacing the project or activity.
(21) Davis Bacon Act--The federal statute at
40 U.S.C. §§
3141 et seq. and in conformance with the U.S.
Department of Labor regulations at 29 CFR Part 5 (Labor Standards Provisions
Applicable to Contracts Covering Federally Financed and Assisted Construction)
and 29 CFR Part 3 (Contractors and Subcontractors on Public Work Financed in
Whole or in Part by Loans or Grants from the United States).
(22) Debt--All bonds or other documents
issued or to be issued by any political subdivision or eligible Applicant
pledging repayment of the Board's financial assistance.
(23) Design--The project phase during which
the project design documents are prepared by the Applicant. Documents may
include design surveys, plans, working drawings, specifications and any
procedures and protocols to be used during the construction phase of the
project.
(24) Disadvantaged
community--A community that meets the affordability criteria based on income,
unemployment rates, and population trends. Specifically, the service area of an
eligible applicant, the service area of a community that is located outside the
entity's service area, or a portion within the entity's service area if the
proposed project is providing new service to existing residents in unserved
areas; and meets the following affordability criteria:
(a) has an annual median household income
that is no more than 75 percent of the state median household income using an
acceptable source of socioeconomic data, and
(b) the household cost factor that considers
income, unemployment rates, and population trends must be greater than or equal
to one percent if only water or sewer service is provided or greater than or
equal to two percent if both water and sewer service are provided. The required
data and calculations of the household cost factor are specified in the
Intended Use Plan under which the project would receive
funding.
(25)
Disaster--The occurrence or imminent threat of widespread or severe damage,
injury, or loss of life or property resulting from any natural or man-made
cause, including fire, flood, earthquake, wind, storm, wave action, oil spill
or other water contamination, volcanic activity, epidemic, air contamination,
blight, drought, infestation, explosion, riot, hostile military or paramilitary
action, extreme heat, other public calamity requiring emergency action, or
energy emergency as defined in Texas Government Code, §
418.004.
(26) Eligible Applicant--Any of the following
entities:
(A) a waste treatment management
agency including any interstate agencies, or any city, commission, county,
district, river authority, or other public body created by or pursuant to state
law that has authority to dispose of sewage, industrial wastes, or other waste,
or a special purpose district that finances, on behalf of its members, waste
disposal projects;
(B) an
authorized Indian tribal organization;
(C) any person applying for financial
assistance to build a nonpoint source pollution control project pursuant to
33 U.S.C. §
1329;
(D) any person applying for financial
assistance for an estuary management project pursuant to
33 U.S.C. §
1330;
(E) any entity or person applying for
financial assistance as authorized under
33 U.S.C. §
1383(c); or
(F) any other entity eligible under federal
law to receive funds from the CWSRF.
(27) Engineering feasibility report--Those
necessary plans and studies that directly relate to the project and that are
needed in order to assure compliance with the enforceable requirements of the
Act and state statutes.
(28)
EPA--The United States Environmental Protection Agency or a designated
representative.
(29) Equivalency
projects--Those projects funded that must follow all federal cross cutter
requirements.
(30) Escrow
account--A separate account maintained by an escrow agent until such funds are
eligible for release to the construction account.
(31) Escrow agent--Any of the following:
(A) a state or national bank designated by
the comptroller as a state depository institution in accordance with Texas
Government Code, Chapter 404, Subchapter C;
(B) a custodian of collateral in accordance
with the Texas Government Code, Chapter 404, Subchapter D; or
(C) a municipal official responsible for
managing the fiscal affairs of a home-rule municipality in accordance with
Local Government Code, Chapter 104.
(32) Estuary management plan--A plan for the
conservation and management of an estuary of national significance as described
in 33 U.S.C. §
1330.
(33) Estuary management project--A project to
develop or implement an estuary management plan.
(34) Executive administrator--The executive
administrator of the Board or a designated representative.
(35) Expiration date--The date on which the
Board's offer of financial assistance is no longer open or valid and by which a
Closing must occur.
(36) Financial
assistance--Funding made available to eligible Applicants, as authorized in
33 U.S.C. §
1383(d), including principal
forgiveness.
(37) Fiscal
sustainability plan--At a minimum, it includes:
(A) an inventory of critical assets that are
part of the treatment works;
(B) an
evaluation of the condition and performance of inventoried assets or asset
groupings;
(C) a certification that
the assistance recipient has evaluated and will be implementing water and
energy conservation efforts as part of the plan; and
(D) a plan for maintaining, repairing, and,
as necessary, replacing the treatment works and a plan for funding such
activities.
(38) Force
majeure--Acts of god, strikes, lockouts, or other industrial disturbances, acts
of the public enemy, war, blockades, insurrections, riots, epidemics,
landslides, lightning, earthquakes, fires, storms, floods, washouts, droughts,
tornadoes, hurricanes, arrests and restraints of government and people,
explosions, breakage or damage to machinery, pipelines or canals, and any other
inabilities of either party, whether similar to those enumerated or otherwise,
and not within the control of the party claiming such inability, which by the
exercise of due diligence and care such party could not have avoided.
(39) Green project--A project or components
of a project that, when implemented, will result in energy efficiency, water
efficiency, green infrastructure, or environmental innovation and that are
characterized as green projects either categorically or by utilizing a business
case as approved by the executive administrator.
(40) Green project reserve--A federal
directive requiring a specified portion of the capitalization grant to finance
green projects.
(41) Initial
Invited Project List--That portion of the Project Priority List listing the
eligible projects, ranked according to their rating, that will initially be
invited to submit applications in accordance with procedures and deadlines as
detailed in the applicable Intended Use Plan.
(42) Intended Use Plan (IUP)--A document
prepared annually by the Board, after public review and comment, which
identifies the intended uses of all CWSRF program funds and describes how those
uses support the overall goals of the CWSRF.
(43) Lending rate--The rate of interest
applicable to financial assistance that must be repaid.
(44) Market interest rate--Interest rates
comparable to those attained for securities in an open market
offering.
(45) Municipality--A
city, town, borough, county, parish, district, association, or other public
body created by or pursuant to state law, or an Indian tribe or an authorized
Indian tribal organization, or a designated and approved management agency
under 33 U.S.C. §
1288.
(46) Non-equivalency projects--All projects
other than Equivalency projects.
(47) Nonpoint source pollution plan--A plan
for managing nonpoint source pollution as described in
33 U.S.C. §
1329. Nonpoint source pollution is any source
of water pollution that does not enter water from a point source and includes
pollution generally resulting from land runoff, precipitation, atmospheric
deposition, drainage, seepage, or hydrologic modification.
(48) Nonpoint source pollution project--A
project implemented pursuant to a nonpoint source pollution plan.
(49) Outlay report--The Board's form used to
report costs incurred on the project.
(50) Permit--Any permit, license,
registration, or other legal document required from any local, regional, state,
or federal government for construction of the project.
(51) Person--An individual, corporation,
partnership, association, State, municipality, commission, or political
subdivision of the State, or any interstate body.
(52) Planning--The project phase during which
the Applicant identifies and evaluates potential alternatives to meet the needs
of the proposed project. It includes the cost and effectiveness analysis and
environmental review described in Subchapter E of this chapter and preparation
of the engineering feasibility report described in Subchapter F of this
chapter.
(53) Point source--Any
discernible, confined, and discrete conveyance, including but not limited to
any pipe, ditch, channel, tunnel, conduit, well, discrete fissure, container,
rolling stock, concentrated animal feeding operation, or vessel or other
floating craft, from which pollutants are or may be discharged. This term does
not include agricultural stormwater discharges and return flows from irrigated
agriculture.
(54) Political
subdivision--A municipality, intermunicipal, interstate, or state agency, or
any other public entity eligible for assistance under Texas Water Code Chapter
16, Subchapter J, or a nonprofit water supply corporation created and operating
under Texas Water Code Chapter 67, if such entity is eligible for financial
assistance under federal law.
(55)
Population--The number of people who reside within the territorial boundaries
of or receive wholesale or retail wastewater service from the Applicant based
upon data that is acceptable to the executive administrator and which includes
the following:
(A) acceptable demographic
projections or other information in the engineering feasibility report or the
latest official data from the U.S. Census Bureau for an incorporated city;
or
(B) information on the
population for which the project is designed, where the Applicant is not an
incorporated city or town.
(56) Principal forgiveness--A type of
additional subsidization authorized by
33 U.S.C. §
1383(i) or federal
appropriations acts, as detailed in the Intended Use Plan and principal
forgiveness agreement or bond transcript applicable to the project.
(57) Private Placement Memorandum (PPM)--A
document functionally similar to an "official statement" used in connection
with an offering of municipal securities in a private placement.
(58) Project--The planning, acquisition,
environmental review, design, construction, and other activities designed to
accomplish the objectives, goals, and policies of the Act by providing
assistance for projects and activities identified in
33 U.S.C. §
1383(c), which may include
those projects eligible for funding under §
375.2 of this title.
(59) Project engineer--The engineer retained
by the Applicant to provide professional engineering services during any phase
of a project.
(60) Project
information form (PIF)--The form that the executive administrator determines
must be submitted by Applicants for rating and ranking in an IUP.
(61) Project Priority List--A listing, found
in the IUP, of projects eligible for funding, ranked according to their rating
criteria score and that may be further prioritized as described in the
applicable IUP.
(62) Ready to
proceed--A project for which available information indicates that there are no
significant permitting, land acquisition, social, contractual, environmental,
engineering, or financial issues that would keep the project from proceeding in
a timely manner to the construction phase of a project.
(63) Release of funds--The sequence and
timing for Applicant's release of financial assistance funds from the escrow
account to the construction account.
(64) Small and Medium-Sized Publicly Owned
Treatment Works--A Publicly Owned Treatment Work with a design flow equal to or
less than 5 million gallons per day.
(65) Small systems--Those systems that serve
a population of not more than ten thousand individuals.
(66) State--The State of Texas.
(67) Subsidy--A reduction in the interest
rate from the market interest rate.
(68) Treatment works--Any devices and systems
used in the storage, treatment, recycling, and reclamation of municipal sewage
or industrial wastes of a liquid nature to implement
33 U.S.C. §
1281, or necessary to recycle or reuse water
at the most economical cost over the estimated life of the works, including
intercepting sewers, outfall sewers, sewage collection systems, pumping, power,
and other equipment, and their appurtenances; extensions, improvements,
remodeling, additions, and alterations thereof; elements essential to provide a
reliable recycled supply such as standby treatment units, clear well facilities
and distribution facilities for recycled or reused water; and acquisition of
the land that will be an integral part of the treatment process (including land
use for the storage of treated wastewater in land treatment systems prior to
land application) or will be used for ultimate disposal of residues resulting
from such treatment and acquisition of other land, and interests in land, that
are necessary for construction. The term also means any other method or system
for preventing, abating, reducing, storing, treating, separating, or disposing
of municipal waste, including storm water runoff, or industrial waste,
including waste in combined storm water and sanitary sewer systems.
(69) Utility Commission--The Public Utility
Commission of Texas.
(70) Water
conservation plan--A plan that complies with the requirements of Texas Water
Code Section
16.4021.
(71) Water quality management plan--A plan
prepared and updated annually by the State and approved by the Environmental
Protection Agency that determines the nature, extent, and causes of water
quality problems in various areas of the State and identifies cost-effective
and locally acceptable facility and nonpoint measures to meet and maintain
water quality standards.
Notes
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