Note: Under s. 283.01 (6), Stats., “effluent limitation” means any restriction established by the department, including schedules of compliance, on quantities, rates, and concentrations of chemical, physical, biological, and other constituents that are discharged from point sources into waters of this state. Flow rates and flow volumes are considered to be physical constituents restricted by WPDES permits. (26) “Engineering” includes the following:
(a) Performing preliminary planning to determine the need for or the feasibility of building or modifying a treatment works or BMP, including preparing a facilities plan.
(b) Performing engineering, architectural, geotechnical, hydrogeological, fiscal, or economic investigations or studies.
(c) Identifying illicit discharges to an MS4, a BMP, or a wastewater treatment works if the identification work is directly related to the scored project.
(d) Preparing surveys, designs, plans, bidding documentation, working drawings, or specifications.
(e) Observing, inspecting or supervising any of the activities under pars. (a) to (d) or under sub.(17).
(27) “Equipment replacement fund” means a separate fund established by the municipality for the purpose of making expenditures for major repair or replacement of equipment necessary for continuing operation of wastewater or runoff treatment works, or for maintenance of a BMP.
(28) “Financial assistance” includes one or more of the following actions taken by the department and DOA under ss. 281.58 and 281.59, Stats.: (a) Providing a loan, principal forgiveness, interest rate subsidies, a grant, a guarantee, or credit enhancement to a municipality.
(b) Refinancing a municipality’s interim debt obtained for the scored project.
(c) Purchasing insurance for a municipality.
(29) “Financial assistance agreement” means a written agreement between a municipality, the department, and DOA that contains the terms and conditions of the financial assistance provided to the municipality under subch. II or III.
(30) “Financial assistance agreement amendment” means a formal, written change to an existing financial assistance agreement, executed by all parties to the original agreement.
(31) “Force account work” means engineering, construction, or other project-specific activities performed by municipal paid employees, or using equipment owned by the municipality, or both.
(32) “Governmental facility” means any public facility, including a facility used for legislative, judicial, administrative and regulatory activities of federal, state and local governments.
(33) “Groundwater” has the meaning given in s. 160.01 (4), Stats. (34) “Hardship financial assistance” means financial assistance authorized under s. 281.58 (13), Stats. (35) “Hardship financial assistance funding list” means a list established by the department each fiscal year that ranks, in environmental priority order, based on the priority list established under s. 281.58 (8e), Stats., scored projects eligible for hardship financial assistance under s. 281.58 (13) (b), Stats. (36) “Hardship fundable range’’ means those projects on the hardship financial assistance funding list that are projected to utilize all available hardship present value subsidy for each fiscal year.
(37) “Hardship present value subsidy” or “hardship PV” means the present value subsidy provided to municipalities to reduce loan interest rates below those interest rates established in s. 281.58 (12) (a), Stats., including 0% interest loans, and to provide grants. (38) “Hardship subsidy’’ means the amount of subsidy provided by the CWFP under s. 281.58 (13), Stats., to reduce the interest rate of a CWFP loan to a rate below any interest rate specified in s. 281.58 (12) (a), Stats., and to provide grants. (40) “Industrial facility” means any nongovernmental or nonresidential facility that is used for activities such as agriculture, forestry, fishing, mining, manufacturing, transportation, communications or providing services including electric, gas and sanitary services.
(41) “Industrial user” has the meaning given in s. 281.58 (1) (c), Stats. (44) “Institutional facility” means any facility that is used for social, charitable, religious and educational activities such as schools, churches, hospitals, nursing homes, penal institutions and similar uses.
(45) “Interest rate subsidy” means the subsidy, expressed in percentage points, provided by the CWFP under ss. 281.58 and 281.59, Stats., to reduce the interest cost of loans provided to municipalities by the BCPL under ch. 24, Stats. (46) “Interest rate subsidy agreement” means a written agreement between a municipality, the department, and DOA that contains the terms and conditions of financial assistance provided to the municipality under subch. IV.
(47) “Interim financing” means a debt incurred by a municipality to temporarily finance a scored project until permanent financing is obtained from the CWFP.
(48) “Interim financing costs” means the net interest, fees, and charges associated with issuing interim financing, including underwriter discounts, attorney fees, financial advisor fees, printing costs, bond rating charges, and trustees fees.
(49) “Lateral” means a privately−owned sewer service line that connects a residence, commercial establishment, institutional facility, or industrial user to a municipal sewage collection system or individual system.
(50) “Maintenance” means activities or procedures that are established, commonplace, or repetitious, and are performed or should be performed frequently or on a schedule to sustain the functional integrity and efficiency of existing facilities and to provide upkeep for prevention of early decline or failure, or are performed as needed in response to minor emergencies, such as sewer pipe repair or replacement when a pipe bursts, including the following types of maintenance:
(a) Preventive maintenance, including scheduled service, repair, inspection, adjustment, or replacement of parts, to keep equipment or facilities in satisfactory operating condition, to avoid frequent breakdowns and premature replacements, and to achieve the expected life of constructed assets and installed building equipment, conducted with a frequency of one year or less.
(b) Corrective maintenance, including unscheduled maintenance repairs to correct deficiencies during the year in which they occur.
(c) Mobile equipment maintenance, including all corrective, preventive, emergency, or replacement maintenance work done on mobile equipment assets, except when performed at time of purchase of used equipment to bring the purchased equipment to a fully functional or improved condition, or both.
(d) Recurring maintenance, including preventive maintenance activities that recur on a periodic and scheduled cycle of greater than 1 year, but less than 10 years.
(e) Component renewal which is preventive maintenance activities that recur on a periodic and scheduled cycle of greater than 10 years, unless performed within the scope of a larger scored project.
(f) Emergency maintenance, including unscheduled activities and repairs, such as repairing watermain breaks or mechanical malfunctions in aged or damaged infrastructure, typically initiated within a very short amount of time from when a need is identified, to correct an emergency need to prevent injury, loss of property, or human health impacts, or to quickly return an asset to service, excepting emergency repairs or replacement needed due to damage caused by severe weather, cyber attacks, or other unforeseen serious emergency situations over which the municipality has no control.
(g) Minor equipment replacement that substitutes or exchanges one existing asset, asset component, or item of installed equipment for another having the same specifications and the same capacity to perform the same function, except when performed within the scope of a larger capital improvement.
(h) Demolition occurring outside of the construction site of a scored project or that is not necessary for construction of a scored project.
(51) “Market interest rate” has the meaning given in s. 281.59 (1) (b), Stats. Note: Under s. 281.59 (1) (b), Stats., “market interest rate” means the effective interest rate on a fixed-rate revenue obligation issued by the state to fund a loan made under this section or, for a variable rate obligation, the effective interest rate that DOA determines would have been paid if the variable rate obligation had been sold at a fixed rate. (52) “Median household income” has the meaning given in s. 281.58 (1) (cm), Stats. Note: Under s. 281.58 (1) (m), Stats., “median household income” means median household income determined by the U.S. bureau of the census as adjusted by the department to reflect changes in household income since the most recent federal census. (53) “Minor civil division” means the primary governmental divisions of a county, including towns, as designated by the U.S. bureau of the census to collect and publish data.
(54) “Minority business enterprise” or “MBE” means a DBE that is owned or controlled on a daily basis by one or more minority group members.
(55) “Municipal separate storm sewer system” or “MS4” means a system of conveyances, including roads with drainage systems, municipal streets, catch basins, curbs, gutters, ditches, constructed channels, or storm drains, that is all of the following:
(a) Owned or operated by a municipality.
(b) Designed or used for collecting or conveying storm water.
(c) Not a combined sewer conveying both wastewater and storm water.
(d) Not part of a publicly owned wastewater treatment works that provides secondary or more stringent treatment.
(56) “Municipal WPDES storm water discharge permit” means any permit issued to a municipality by the department under s. 283.33 (3), Stats., for the purpose of controlling storm water discharges from an MS4. (57) “Municipality” has the meaning given in s. 281.59 (1) (c), Stats. Note: Under s. 281.59 (1) (c), Stats., “municipality” means any city, town, village, county, county utility district, town sanitary district, public inland lake protection and rehabilitation district, metropolitan sewerage district, joint local water authority created under s. 66.0823, Stats., or federally recognized American Indian tribe or band in this state. (58) “New or changed limits” means an effluent limitation in a WPDES permit that was newly established or modified after May 17, 1988.
(59) “Nonpoint source” has the meaning given in s. 281.65 (2) (b), Stats. Note: Under s. 281.65 (2) (b), Stats., “nonpoint source” means a land management activity that contributes to runoff, seepage or percolation which adversely affects or threatens the quality of waters of this state and which is not a point source under s. 283.01 (12), Stats. (60) “Operations” means labor, materials and chemicals used regularly, and work activities performed on a recurring basis throughout the year that are intended to meet routine, daily functional needs. Work activities may include any of the following:
(a) Operational maintenance activities related to continuing normal performance of the functions for which a treatment works or BMP asset or item of equipment is intended, including activities to keep building systems such as HVAC, lighting, and electrical utilities working properly.
(b) Custodial maintenance activities, such as housekeeping duties, rodent and pest control, and lawn mowing, associated with general day-to-day care and cleaning necessary to maintain constructed assets.
(c) Trash removal activities to dispose of hazardous and non-hazardous waste and debris and to recycle products such as paper, cans, and bottles.
(d) Snow and ice removal and activities to treat surfaces to eliminate unsafe weather-related conditions.
(e) Office activities related to billing, collections, customer communications, personnel, and other types of work activities that support the administration of the treatment works or BMP.
(f) Routine walk-through and other surveillance activities associated with identifying operational anomalies and ensuring all treatment works or BMP components are working as intended.
(61) “Parallel cost percentage” means, for a scored project, the proportion of costs eligible for below–market rate financing relative to the total costs eligible for CWFP financing as established in s. NR 162.04 (1). Note: The calculation of the parallel cost percentage is described in s. NR 162.04 (1) (c). (62) “Performance standards” means nonagricultural performance standards established by the department in ch. NR 151, pursuant to s. 281.16 (2), Stats. (63) “Place” means a concentration of population either legally bounded as an incorporated place, such as a city or village, or identified as a census designated place by the U.S. bureau of the census.
(64) “Plans and specifications” means project drawings and specification manuals for all construction work to be included in the financial assistance for the scored project.
(65) “Population” means the most recent year’s final population estimate published by the DOA demographic services center for the Wisconsin city, town, or village that submitted an intent to apply form. For a municipality other than a city, town, or village, “population” means the most recent population count or estimate done for the municipality and provided to the department by the municipality for purposes such as completing a sanitary survey.
(66) “Present value subsidy” or “PV” means the sum of periodic subsidies for loans made to or projected to be made to municipalities during a fiscal year, discounted at a rate of 5% to 7% per year to the first day of the biennium during which the loans are made.
(67) “Prior debt service” means the principal and interest of debt incurred for a previous capital improvement that is related to the treatment works or BMP and is documented as incurred in the past.
(68) “Priority score” means the numerical value, determined by the department, that is assigned to each project in accordance with s. NR 162.51. (69) “Professional services” includes engineering, archaeological, legal, or financial services, provided by a formally certified member of a professional body, such as a trade association or organized profession.
(70) “Project” means a set of activities intended to result, or that has resulted, in completed construction of wastewater related or storm water related facilities or practices.
(71) “Project closeout” means the procedures described in s. NR 162.14 (4) for projects funded under subchs. II and III, and in s. NR 162.70 (4) for projects funded under subch. IV. (72) “Project commitment present value subsidy” or “project commitment PV” means the present value subsidy provided to municipalities to reduce loan interest rates from the market interest rate to the interest rates in s. NR 162.11 (1) (a). (73) “Project completion date” means the earliest date on which all of the following apply:
(a) Construction of the scored project is complete.
(b) The department or its agents have certified that the scored project was constructed according to department−approved plans and specifications.
(c) The department or its agents have certified that the facilities are operating according to design.
(d) The project closeout is complete.
(e) The department has notified the recipient that the scored project is complete.
(74) “Proportional share” means the costs of the operation and maintenance of the treatment works or BMP shared equitably and proportionately among the users through a user charge system.
(75) “Receiving municipality” means a municipality that owns a treatment works and accepts discharges from one or more other municipalities into its treatment works for treatment and disposal.
(76) “Recipient” means any municipality or group of municipalities that has been awarded or has received financial assistance under ss. 281.58 and 281.59, Stats. (77) “Replacement” means obtaining and installing equipment, accessories, or appurtenances that are necessary during the useful life of the treatment works or BMP project funded through the CWFP to maintain or improve the capacity and performance levels for which the treatment works or BMP was designed and constructed.
