Demand for Wyo water projects outpaces funding

By Tom Lacock, Cowboy State Free Press Correspondent

CASPER–Despite nearly $40 million from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), the head of the Wyoming State Lands Office said demand for Wyoming Clean Water State Revolving Fund (SRF) program still out-paces the funds available by nearly $800 million.

“I don’t think we will run out of local infrastructure projects any time soon, “ said State Lands Director Lynne Boomgaarden. “My general recollection is when we first announced the additional monies were available, I think we received about $838 million in applications.”

The SRF program has been in Wyoming for the past eight years and is administered through the Wyoming Water Development Council, the Department of Environmental Quality and the State Lands Office. The State Loan and Investment Board gets the final approval over the loans which are recommended for the program. The program is funded 80 percent by the federal government and another 20 percent by a state match. This year with the ARRA (or financial stimulus), the funding in the SRF has been 100 percent federal funded.

According to State Lands and Investment Office Program Manager Robert Tompkins, the money is split into clean water projects (wastewater) and drinking water projects. For projects to be eligible for funding from either SRF program (both core and ARRA) projects must be listed on either the current Clean Water SRF Intended Use Plan (IUP), the Drinking Water SRF Intended Use Plan (IUP) or both.

The SRF received $39,739,100 from the stimulus this year, which resulted in a reported 50.24 jobs. Boomgaarden said the federal government is asking the states to record how many jobs the stimulus money has either saved or created using a formula that counts all hours worked and paid by stimulus dollars, divided by the number of hours that could have been worked in that quarter for a standard week.

The job creation (or retention) came at a good time for Wyoming. According to a Jan. 22 press release by the Associated General Contractors of America, the state of Wyoming has seen a 23.8 percent drop in construction employment statewide, second-worst in the nation.

“This is one area where without a doubt the fed stimulus money can come in and help us backfill good projects and have collateral effect of making sure people are working,” Boomgaarden said.

Wyoming Association of Municipalities Executive Director George Parks said the SRF loans are important for communities who need to make improvements on their systems or make improvements on older systems.

“They are big systems, they are expensive and they wear out,” Parks said. “Just keeping up with any kind of a replacement schedule is a tough thing to do. The demand for these kinds of projects will always been there. It’s just a matter of how big of a dent you are able to make in a backlog of good projects.”

The City of Riverton took advantage of stimulus dollars, funneled through the state’s Clean Water State Revolving Loan Fund (SRF) to replace 50-60 year old water mains made of asbestos cement (the asbestos isn’t dangerous until it becomes airborne), and update a sewer project, which was 30 years old.

According to Riverton Director of Public Services Bill Urbigkit, when the words, “shovel-ready,” became a catchphrase for receiving funding through the federal stimulus, the city began its effort even before the funding was available to have projects ready possible for grant and loan funding.

“We hired every engineering firm in town to help us get projects into the intended use program. We took some gambles by fronting the engineering money for design on the projects, but we were able to apply for two water projects and two sewer projects. On a per capita basis, we did quite well with stimulus dollars,” Urbikit said.

In all, the City of Riverton has picked up about $2.4 million in stimulus funds by using the SRF and another near $2 million in SRF funds, which will have to be paid back.

According to Urbigkit, 50 percent of the money received for projects through stimulus funding this year is given as a grant, while the rest is offered as a no-interest loan, which will be forgiven when the project is completed. The other half of the project funding for Riverton came from the SRF and will be paid back at 2.5 percent interest over the next 20 years.

In the past Ubrigkit said the city of Riverton has taken advantage of SRF funds for projects like a new filter beds to eliminate spikes of muddy water into the city’s drinking water system. Riverton was also able to automate its water treatment plant and update a sewer system for a subdivision that previously had individual septic systems and a failing drinking water system.

“They were under almost eminent threat,” Ubrigkit said. “They had two wells that were undersized and raw sewage backing up all over the place. They were asking the city for some help and we used a Mineral Royalty Grant for half the money and then we got a 20-year loan for 2.5 percent through the SRF for the other half. It may have added $20-25 per month to their water bill, but they were happy to pay it because no one could come up with $250,000.”

Replacing water treatment and aged sewer systems has been the main use of the SRF program. According to Tompkins, two-thirds of the 99 Wyoming cities and counties that responded to a 2008 survey, said they have some portion of clay tile sewer pipe in their sewer lines. For that reason, Tompkins said it will be years before Wyoming cities and towns stop applying for federal funding to either replace the clay tile or “slip line,” the tile. Slip line is a cheaper alternative to digging up and replacing clay tile, but requires the clay tile remain in good condition so a liner may be run inside. Tompkins added that most of the pipe local governments are applying to replace was laid over 50 years ago.

“The pipe in most instances is well beyond its useful life and compromised by cracks, heaving, separation and collapses,” Tompkins said. “And of course, this creates other problems such as ground water infiltration and contamination. The more deteriorated the pipe the odds are that the more costly dig and replace project must be pursued. With this issue we are in a race with time. The longer entities wait the more likely it is that they will have to dig and replace their clay tile sewer lines with PVC lines. We are also seeing a similar issue on the drinking water side with the replacement of iron ductile drinking water lines with PVC lines.”

The Wyoming Business Council’s Investment Ready Communities helps local governments to fund, among other things, infrastructure as it relates to economic development. Shawn Reese is the Director of the IRC Division and said they haven’t seen a large upswing in applications from communities since it was reported the state’s allocation of general funds to local governments is likely to be cut this legislative session.

“From anecdotes, our sense is local governments both need and want operational funds and grant programs for large scale infrastructure programs,” Reese said. “We have not seen a spike in demand for Business Ready Community funding.”

In addition to money for clean and drinking water projects, Riverton also received $3.5 million for airport runway reconstruction and other improvements, as well as $1.5 million from the Department of Justice for mobile data terminals in police cars and another $180,000 in stimulus funds through the Wyoming Business Council’s State Energy Program for retrofitting lights in city facilities.