Explanation
1. BACKGROUND: The Ohio EPA requires this legislation which authorizes the Director of Public Utilities to apply for and execute up to forty-three (43) Ohio Water Pollution Control Loan Fund (WPCLF) loan agreements in 2019, totaling approximately $293 million, for the construction of forty-three 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 Stormwater and Wastewater system improvements.
2. FISCAL IMPACT: There is sufficient budget authority in the 2019 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 forty-three (43) 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 forty-three 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 $293 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 forty-three capital improvements projects under the Division of Sewerage and Drain...
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