在佛罗里达州开展铅和铜法规合规和资助战略合作

亚洲体育博彩平台 recently joined a workshop held by the Southeast Florida Utility Council (SEFLUC) to discuss compliance and funding strategies for the U.S. 铅铜法则.

SEFLUC是一个提供通信的公用事业委员会, 为位于布劳沃德的成员公用事业公司提供网络和支持结构, 迈阿密戴德, 棕榈滩, 佛罗里达州东南部的门罗县和马丁县.  SEFLUC exemplifies a proactive commitment to collaboration and how utilities can work together to navigate and comply with intricate regulatory requirements, and its members regularly engage in specialized workshop sessions that delve into the continuously evolving landscape of regulatory compliance guidelines.

委员会的领导 & 铜工作小组邀请雅各布斯讨论《 铅和铜规则修订 (LCRR)，特别注重服务线库存的发展和筹资策略.

互动工作坊, which consisted of an overview of LCRR regulatory requirements as well as the forthcoming 铅铜法则 Improvements agenda, 包括在服务线库存开发的各个阶段的许多公用事业. 在整个会议期间, a recurring theme revolved around the challenges in locating historical records for review and the absence of information concerning the customer-owned segment of service lines (distribution lines that carry drinking water into customers’ homes and can be a source of lead contamination). 在没有历史记载的情况下, 公用事业需要额外的方法来识别未知材料的服务线. Many of these utilities are awaiting further guidance and clarification from their primacy agency to determine state-approved methods to advance their inventory development.

在研讨会的财务策略部分，我的同事 迈克Matichich 讨论了公用事业公司为其LCRR合规项目提供的各种融资选择, 包括国家循环基金, 市政债券和用户费用. He also discussed recent updates by the Florida DEP regarding the definition of disadvantaged communities and resulting changes in access to principal forgiveness loans for the dedicated lead service line funding program created by the 首页投资和就业法案 (IIJA).   

这些本金减免贷款本质上是赠款，因为它们不需要偿还, and many of the participants in the workshop were interested to learn that they may now qualify for some of this IIJA funding because the Florida agency has broadened the definition of disadvantaged communities. The State no longer restricts the free money to small communities and it now allows communities to qualify as disadvantaged if they have census tracts designated as disadvantaged in the Climate and Economic Justice Screening Tool (CEJST), 这是白宫环境质量委员会最近推出的基于地理信息系统的工具. This tool was showcased to illustrate how communities could be identified as disadvantaged or partially disadvantaged if they fall within a census tract meeting the threshold for at least one of the tool's burden categories, 以及相应的经济指标, 或者他们位于联邦承认的部落的土地上.

A key lesson from the workshop emphasized the advantages of taking early steps to develop a service line inventory for water systems. It’s equally critical to sustain regulatory coordination with the primacy agency to stay informed about regulatory changes and to establish an understanding of both federal and state requirements, 特别是在需要进一步明确的地方，以便在10月16日的最初截止日期之前实现合规, 2024.

We hope that the evolving discussions and best practices 分享d during the workshop will be beneficial for water utilities in Florida as they chart their unique compliance roadmap. 如果您有兴趣了解更多关于满足LCRR要求和评估资助资格的信息, 请不要犹豫，向我们的团队寻求进一步的指导.