Rehabilitation of Wastewater Collection and Water Distribution ...

The Policy contains four fundamental principles to ensure that CSO controls are cost-effective and meet
local environmental objectives:
(1) Clear levels of control to meet health and environmental objectives.
(2) Flexibility to consider the site-specific nature of CSOs and find the most cost-effective
way to control them.
(3) Phased implementation of CSO controls to accommodate a community’s financial
capability.
(4) Review and revision of water quality standards during the development of CSO control
plans to reflect the site-specific wet weather impacts of CSOs.
CSO communities have made significant progress in reducing the frequency and size of overflows, but
more work remains to be done. EPA estimates that the annual CSO volume is approximately 850 billion
gallons, down from over 1 trillion gallons prior to issuance of the 1994 CSO Control Policy. EPA also
estimates that approximately $51 billion is still needed over the next 20 years to meet the goals of the
policy (NACWA, 2007).
3.2.4 Capacity, Management, Operation, and Maintenance (CMOM) Program. The CMOM
regulations are part of the SSO regulations affecting some 19,000 sanitary sewer collection systems
throughout the country. Owners of all municipal wastewater collection systems are required to develop
procedures to improve system capacity, perform long-term planning for investments in infrastructure,
develop better documentation and asset management procedures, and share all of this information with
stakeholders more effectively. The CMOM is derived from a need for reducing sewer overflows and the
consequent health risks associated with these overflows. The purpose of the CMOM approach is to abate
SSOs, reduce health risks, extend the life of sewer system assets, and improve utility customer
satisfaction.
3.2.5 Government Accounting Standards Board (GASB) Statement No. 34. The GASB, a nongovernment
entity that defines the criteria that auditors use to judge the adequacy of local and state
government financial statements, has changed long-standing practices by requiring that government
entities include reporting of their capital assets in their annual balance sheet and income statement.
GASB-34, adopted in June 1999, highlights the costs of acquiring, owning, operating, and maintaining
public-works infrastructure for government-bond holders and the public at large. GASB-34 requires that
the value of infrastructure assets be shown on the balance sheet, and gives governments a choice of
adopting either (a) traditional private-sector methods of calculating infrastructure depreciation expenses
based on historical acquisition costs, or (b) an effective asset management system. These asset
management systems must demonstrate either that maintenance spending is adequate to prevent
infrastructure deterioration or that infrastructure condition is being maintained at or above explicitly
stated minimum acceptable standards.
3.2.6 Rehabilitation Funding. Federal funding under the Clean Water Act State Revolving Fund
(SRF) program has remained flat for the past decade. Congress appropriated between $1.2 billion and
$1.35 billion annually from 1995 to 2004. However, in FY 2005, Congress cut wastewater SRF funding
for the first time in eight years, reducing the total investment to $1.1 billion. The administration proposed
further cuts for FY 2006 and 2007, with a budget submittal calling for an appropriation of only $688
million in FY 2007, a reduction of 37 percent from the FY 2005-enacted level. In March 2007, the U.S.
House of Representatives approved the Water Quality Financing Act, 2007, which reauthorized the Clean
Water SRF at $14 billion over 4 years (FY 2008 to 2012).
13