EPA may only allow limited consideration of communities’ Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) obligations in its upcoming framework for assessing their ability to pay for new infrastructure upgrades needed to comply with Clean Water Act (CWA) mandates. An EPA spokesman told the National League of Cities in March the agency plans to use a two-phase approach: SDWA compliance costs may be factored into a community’s overall financial capability indicator to calculate a community’s total burden, but may not be used as part of the average cost per household, or “residential indicator” calculation in estimating individuals’ ability to pay and setting a bar for how much rates can increase.
EPA is crafting the supplemental guidance due to cities’ concerns that the agency’s 1997 affordability guidance allow for additional flexibilities when determining whether cities can afford to pay for their CWA mandates. The agency is expected to meet with municipal officials before the next draft is issued for review by its Environmental Financial Advisory Board.