NHDES hosts annual Water Infrastructure Funding Workshop
NHDES hosted its annual Water Infrastructure Funding Workshop April 9-12. The workshop is a week-long series of webinar presentations covering topics relevant to professionals in the water industry. This year’s sessions covered new federal water quality rules for lead and PFAS in drinking water, how to submit pre-applications for clean water and drinking water infrastructure funding programs, and what resources NHDES can offer to help water professionals navigate historic weather events, new contaminant risks, emerging cybersecurity threats, and growing communities.
The event was opened by Brandon Kernen, Administrator of the NHDES Drinking Water and Groundwater Bureau, who welcomed all attendees the first day of the workshop with a message about opportunities: “We are in an interesting time right now where there are a lot of funding opportunities for the next 4 years.” The American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) and the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL) infused New Hampshire with billions of dollars to invest in our aging water infrastructure. As an example, prior to ARPA and BIL, the Drinking Water State Revolving Fund supported 40 active projects; now there are over 142 active projects spread across five different funding programs.
Kernen praised the hard work of all water professionals, those who have taken on this unprecedented surge in water infrastructure projects, and those whose daily dedication “is on the front lines of protecting public health and the environment.”
“What a lot of people take for granted is that you are there overseeing the critical infrastructure
that is the backbone of our society and our quality of life.”
Kernen closed by encouraging the audience to reach out to any NHDES staff member presenting this week as a resource to support their operations.
The Tuesday afternoon session provided updates on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Lead and Copper Rule Revisions (LCRR). Under EPA’s new lead and copper rule, all drinking water systems must complete an inventory of all the service lines in their distribution system. The inventory needs to identify the material of the service pipe so that any pipe materials that could possibly contain lead can be identified and replaced. The deadline to complete inventories is October 16, 2024.
Presenter,s Heather Baron and Stephanie Nistico shared resources available to water systems to complete their inventories. They explained which methods of identifying service line material would ensure that the data collected was as accurate as possible for each system’s inventory records. Marco Philippon, Water Treatment Superintendent from the City of Concord, shared some lessons learned from their ongoing service line inventory project.
Wednesday covered Asset Management and the clean water, stormwater and wastewater pre-application processes. The message of the day was details, details, details! For Asset Management, setting defined goals that can be measured with data is key to designing a successful asset management plan. For clean water pre-applications, a competitive application is a thorough application that provides detail on every evaluation criteria. Don’t leave the details out!
The EPA announced its final maximum contaminant level (MCL) standards for PFAS on Wednesday morning (April 10), mid-workshop week, and just before the Friday morning session on PFAS. NHDES PFAS Response Coordinator Amy Rousseau opened the session addressing the new standards and held an open questions session to provide attendees with the most current information. The presentation then directed attendees toward the funding sources available to water systems for PFAS mitigation, including the PFAS Remediation Grant and Loan Fund (PFAS RLF), DWSRF Emerging Contaminant Fund, and BIL Emerging Contaminant for Small or Disadvantaged Community Fund (EC SDC). The midday session on “Wastewater Emerging Contaminants” smoothly segued into one of the many funding programs available to mitigate PFAS in the wastewater stream.
New England Water Infrastructure Network (NEWIN) ended the workshop week with a session targeted at small water systems serving fewer than 1,000 customers to apply for and complete a water infrastructure project. NEWIN is available to support small water systems through the application process to get their projects funded.
Sessions across the entire week were well attended and facilitated thoughtful technical discussions on critical issues facing water professionals. There were 884 total registrations for the week. Many presenters gave wholehearted thanks to the water professionals in New Hampshire for their continued dedication to providing clean and safe drinking water and clean water to all New Hampshire residents.