President's Message

Presidents message: Federal and state funding resolutions

I hope all of you are starting to enjoy your summer and spending time with family and friends. Making memories with family and friends is always the best part about summer.

I’m also thrilled to announce that on May 22 , as I’m sure most of you saw, is Wastewater Professional Appreciation Day. I hope everybody did something special for that day.

Driving around and meeting a lot of you, I get many questions about a number of different topics and one of the topics that I’d like to focus on is requirements associated with several key federal and state funding resolutions.

I’d like explain some differences between American Iron and Steel (AIS), the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA), and a component of IIJA— Build America / Buy American (BABA). Here are the basics.

American Iron and Steel (AIS)
The AIS provision is mandated by the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2017 where any federally funded project commencing after 05-May-17 requires domestic preference.

AIS applies to any federally funded construction project.

• Clean Water State Revolving Fund (CWSRF) funded AIS requirements apply to construction, alteration, maintenance, or repair of public treatment works or water systems. AIS requirements apply to the entire project, even if the project is only partially funded by SRF funds. (simply put, $1 of federal funds triggers AIS).

AIS requires that all iron and steel products that will be permanently installed in the funded public works projects must be produced in the United States.

• The term “Iron and steel products” means items such as: piping, manhole covers, municipal castings*, hydrants, tanks, flanges pipe clamps and restraints, valves, structural steel, steel plate, and reinforced concrete pipe.
• *Municipal castings include items such as: access covers, screens, bollards, cast iron basin inlets, curb openings, drainage grates, junction boxes, meter boxes, riser rings, and lamp posts.
• “Construction materials” include such items as: wire rod, bar, angle, concrete reinforcing bar, wire cloth, tubing, pipe, fasteners, welding rod, grating, ladders, ductwork, fencing and tubing, guard rails and doors. What are NOT Considered Construction Materials are mechanical and electrical components which are to be permanently installed in the funded public work which include:
• Pumps, mixers, grinders, gear reducers, drives (VFD), gates, traveling screens, compressors, meters, sensors, SCADA, MBR, clarifiers, disinfection systems, conveyors, and heat exchangers.

Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IJA, H.R. 3684)

The IIJA Bill included three relevant sections regarding State Revolving Funds (SRF):

1. Funding: The bill appropriates $43.43B for the CWSRF and Drinking Water State Revolving Fund (DWSRF) funds over a period of five years.
2. Reauthorization and Policy: The bill includes The Drinking Water and Wastewater Infrastructure Act (S.914) which reauthorizes funding levels for the SRFs and amends provisions of the Clean Water Act and the Safe Drinking Water Act.