RECOVERY: Development of System to Study and Analyze Economic Trends for CWSRF Systems using ARRA Funds

THIS NOTICE IS PROVIDED FOR INFORMATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY. THIS OPPORTUNITY IS AVAILABLE ONLY TO AN ALREADY AWARDED CONTRACTOR UNDER U.S. EPA BLANKET PURCHASE AGREEMENT (BPA) OW-08-WIP. THIS NOTICE IS TO MEET THE REQUIREMENTS OF TRANSPARENCY AS OUTLINED IN THE AMERICAN RECOVERY AND REINVESTMENT ACT (ARRA). The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) provided $4 billion to the Clean Water State Revolving Loan Funds (CWSRF) to invest in the nation’s clean water infrastructure. Of this funding, at least one half of the total must be used to provide “additional subsidization to eligible recipients in the form of forgiveness of principal, negative interest loans or grants or any combination of these.” This type and level of subsidization is not provided for in the base CWSRF program, which does not allow for these funding approaches. Historically, the CWSRF subsidy has been in the form of reduced interest rates (down to 0%) on SRF loans. As well as the new forms of subsidy provided for in ARRA, the conference report for the legislation indicated that, while not required in the Act itself, the states are expected to “target, as much as possible, the additional subsidized monies to communities that could not otherwise afford an SRF loan.” Given the expanded subsidy provisions and desired targeting of the ARRA, it is important to set up the means to analyze how the money is used, and to compare the ARRA subsidy and targeting to that of past EPA CWSRF practices. With the provisions for increased transparency included in the ARRA, EPA will have better data on how these ARRA SRF funds are spent, and should be able to judge the impact of the new approaches and focus. The overall goal of this Task Order is to develop a system for EPA to easily analyze how ARRA funds are spent with regards to CWSRF in disadvantaged communities. This system will also enable analysis of the amounts and types of ARRA assistance provided to disadvantaged communities, and compare the ARRA fund investments to EPA's previous CWSRF assistance.