Utah Admin. Code R309-705-9 - Emergency Assistance
(1) Authority:
Title 73, Chapter 10c, Water Development Coordinating Council, and the SDWA
Amendment of 1996 give the Board authority to provide emergency assistance to
drinking water systems.
(2)
Eligibility: Generally, any situation occurring as defined in Section
R309-705-3 would qualify for
consideration for emergency funding. However, before authorizing funds for an
emergency, the Board may consider one or more of the factors in Subsection
R309-705-9(2).
(i) Was the emergency preventable? Did the
water system have knowledge that this emergency could be expected? If not.
Should it have been aware of the potential for this problem? Did its management
take reasonable action to either prevent it or to be as financially and
technically prepared as reasonably possible to correct the problem when it
occurred?
(ii) Has the water system
established a capital improvement replacement reserve fund? Has the water
system been charging reasonably high rates to establish a reserve fund to cover
normal infrastructure replacement and emergencies?
(iii) Is the community a disadvantaged
community?
(iv) While the state has
no legal obligation to provide financial assistance, is the potential for
illness, injury, or other harm to the public or system operators sufficiently
high that the value of providing financial assistance outweighs other factors
that would preclude providing this assistance.
(3) Requirements for the Applicant: The
applicant will be required to do the following as a condition of receiving
financial assistance to cope with a drinking water emergency:
(i) To the extent feasible, the water system
shall first use its own resources, such as a capital improvement replacement
fund, to correct the problem.
(ii)
If the water system is not placing funds into a reserve fund on a regular basis
or is charging relatively low water rates it shall be required to examine its
current rate structure and policies for placing funds into a reserve account.
The Board may require the water system to establish a reserve account or to
revise its rate structure as a condition of the loan.
(iii) The Board may place other requirements
on the water system.
(4)
Financial Agreements and Bonding. The State will work with the Applicant to
help secure obligating documents. For example, the Board:
(i) Could waive the 30-day notice period, if
legally possible.
(ii) Could accept
a generic bond.
(iii) Could accept
an unsecured loan or bond.
(5) Funding Alternatives: An Applicant may be
authorized to receive a loan by any of the financial assistance methods
specified in Section R309-705-4 for funding an
emergency project. The Board may set and revise the methodology and factors to
be considered when determining the terms of any financial assistance it
provides including assigning a priority it deems appropriate. The terms of the
loan, including length of repayment period, interest or hardship grant
assessment, and principal forgiveness or grant, or repayment waivers will be
determined when the emergency funding is authorized.
(6) Funding Process - The Board must find
that an emergency exists according to the criteria in Subsection
R309-705-9(2).
It is anticipated that under normal emergency conditions time restraints will
not allow a request for emergency funding to be placed on the agenda of a
regularly scheduled Board meeting or adoption and advertisement of a project
priority list. Therefore, the following procedures will be followed in
processing a loan application for emergency assistance:
(i) Division staff will evaluate each
application for emergency funding according to the criteria listed in
Subsection R309-705-9(2).
Staff will solicit recommendations from the LHD and District Engineer about the
proposed project to mitigate the emergency. Staff will submit a report of its
findings to the Board Chair or designee.
(ii) The Board Chair or designee will arrange
for a timely meeting of the Board to consider authorizing assistance for the
emergency. This meeting may be conducted by telephone or virtual means using
readily available computer platforms.
Notes
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