Explanation
1. BACKGROUND: The Ohio EPA requires this legislation which authorizes the Director of Public Utilities to apply for and execute up to sixty-five (65) Ohio Water Pollution Control Loan Fund (WPCLF) loan agreements in 2023, totaling approximately $677 million, for the construction of sixty-five Sanitary, Stormwater, and Treatment Engineering Capital Improvement Projects as identified in Section 1., under the direction of the Division of Sewerage and Drainage (DOSD). This loan program is jointly administered by the Ohio EPA's Division of Environmental and Financial Assistance, and the Ohio Water Development Authority (OWDA). The WPCLF Loan Fund program provides below-market interest rate loans for municipal Wastewater and Stormwater system improvements.
2. FISCAL IMPACT: There is sufficient budget authority in the 2023 Sewer Systems and Stormwater Operating Funds for the loan application fee expenditures. These loans will be paid off over a 20-year period from Sewerage System and Stormwater rates (dedicated source of repayment). Sewerage System and Stormwater rate increases have been projected and planned in anticipation of these projects and loans.
Title
To authorize the Director of Public Utilities to apply for, accept, and enter into up to sixty-five (65) Ohio Water Pollution Control Loan Fund Loan Agreements with the Ohio Water Development Authority and the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency, for the financing of up to sixty-five Division of Sewerage and Drainage construction projects; and to designate a dedicated source of repayment for the loans.
Body
WHEREAS, the Department of Public Utilities is scheduled to prepare loan applications for up to $677 million in financing, for submittal to the Ohio EPA under the Ohio Water Pollution Control Loan Fund (WPCLF) program to finance, through below-market interest rate loans, the construction of up to sixty-five capital improvements projects under the Division of Sewerage an...
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