Explanation
1. BACKGROUND: The Ohio EPA requires this legislation which authorizes the Director of Public Utilities to apply for and execute up to twenty-six (26) new Ohio Water Pollution Control Loan Fund (WPCLF) loan agreements totaling approximately $207 Million, for the construction or design of twenty-six 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 treatment improvements.
2. FISCAL IMPACT: There is sufficient budget authority in the 2017 Sewer Systems Operating Funds for the loan application fee expenditures. These loans will be paid off over a 20-year period from sewerage system fees (dedicated source of repayment). Sewerage system fee 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 twenty-six (26) Ohio Water Pollution Control Loan Fund Agreements with the Ohio Water Development Authority and the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency, for the financing of up to twenty-six Division of Sewerage and Drainage Division construction and design 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 $207 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 design or construction of up to twenty-six capital improvements projects under the Division of Sewerage and Drainage, which said financial ass...
Click here for full text