Subchapter V — Priority Scoring and Ranking System
NR 162.49 Project scoring system. NR 162.50 Project priority score. NR 162.51 Procedure for determination and reevaluation of project priority score. NR 162.52 Project ranking system. Ch. NR 162 NoteNote: Chapter NR 162 as it existed on June 30, 1996, was repealed and a new chapter NR 162 was created, Register, June, 1996, No. 486, eff. 7-1-96. Chapter NR 162 as it existed on February 28, 2001, was repealed and a new chapter NR 162 was created, Register, February, 2001, No. 542, eff. 3-1-01. Chapter NR 162 as it existed on November 30, 2003, was repealed and a new chapter NR 162 was created, Register November 2003 No. 575, eff. 12-1-03. Chapter NR 162 as it existed on June 30, 2015, was repealed and a new chapter NR 162 was created by CR 14-043, Register June 2015 No. 714, eff. 7-1-15. Chapter NR 162 as it existed on October 31, 2023, was repealed and a new chapter NR 162 was created by CR 22-045, Register October 2023 No. 814, effective November 1, 2023. NR 162.001NR 162.001 Purpose. The purposes of this chapter are all of the following: NR 162.001(1)(1) Establish rules under ss. 281.58 and 281.59, Stats., to implement and administer a financial assistance program for the engineering and construction of treatment works and best management practices. NR 162.001(2)(2) Establish a priority system for distributing clean water fund program financial assistance as provided in s. 281.58, Stats., and the mechanisms and methodology to be used to modify the priority scoring system. NR 162.001(3)(3) Establish rules under s. 281.58 (6) (b) 8., Stats., to implement and administer interest rate subsidies for loans issued by the board of commissioners of public lands for projects to engineer and construct treatment works and best management practices with total estimated project costs of $2,000,000 or less. NR 162.001 NoteNote: All forms necessary for financial assistance under this chapter are available on the department’s website. Paper forms may be acquired from the Department of Natural Resources, Bureau of Community Financial Assistance, 101 S. Webster St., P.O. Box 7921, Madison, Wisconsin 53707–7921. Most information is required to be submitted through the department’s online application system.
NR 162.001 HistoryHistory: CR 22-045: cr. Register October 2023 No. 814, eff. 11-1-23. NR 162.002NR 162.002 Applicability. This chapter applies to all applicants for and recipients of financial assistance for the engineering and construction of treatment works and best management practices made under ss. 281.58 and 281.59, Stats. This rule first applies to financial assistance applications submitted to the department on November 1, 2023. Compliance with the applicable requirements of this chapter is a prerequisite to receiving financial assistance under ss. 281.58 and 281.59, Stats. NR 162.002 HistoryHistory: CR 22-045: cr. Register October 2023 No. 814, eff. 11-1-23. NR 162.003NR 162.003 Definitions. In this chapter: NR 162.003(1)(1) “Amendment” means a formal, written change to an existing legal agreement or contract executed by all parties to the original agreement or contract. NR 162.003(2)(2) “American Community Survey” or “ACS” means the nationwide survey conducted by the U.S. bureau of the census to collect demographic, social, housing, and economic data and produce 1-year, 3-year, and 5-year estimates based on population thresholds. NR 162.003(3)(3) “Applicant” means any municipality that submits to the department any of the following for financial assistance under this chapter: NR 162.003(3)(a)(a) Intent to apply form and priority evaluation and ranking information as required by the department. NR 162.003(4)(4) “Approval” means the written approval of the department. NR 162.003 NoteNote: Under s. NR 151.002 (4), “Best management practices” or “BMPs” means structural or non-structural measures, practices, techniques, or devices employed to avoid or minimize soil, sediment, or pollutants carried in runoff to waters of the state. NR 162.003(6)(6) “Block group” means a subdivision of a census tract made up of a cluster of blocks having the same first digit of their 4-digit identifying numbers within the tract. NR 162.003(7)(7) “Board of commissioners of public lands” or “BCPL” means the organization comprised of the secretary of state, the state treasurer, and the attorney general that operates under the authority of ch. 24, Stats. NR 162.003 NoteNote: The BCPL is also known as state trust funds.
NR 162.003(7m)(7m) “BOD” means the pollutant parameter biochemical oxygen demand. NR 162.003(8)(8) “Breach of contract” means the failure of the municipality to comply with any of the following: NR 162.003(8)(a)(a) The terms and conditions of the financial assistance agreement or interest rate subsidy agreement. NR 162.003(8)(b)(b) The terms and conditions of the municipal resolution authorizing the issuance and sale of bonds or notes to the clean water fund program. NR 162.003(9)(9) “Capital improvement” means construction resulting in improvements to real property or depreciable property, or both, and adding to the value or useful life of these assets, including structural improvements, or improvements that enhance usefulness or productivity. “Capital improvement” includes capital assets that are not structural but are necessary for water quality protection or improvement, such as trucks, street sweepers, land for buffer areas, and other tangible assets with a single item cost of greater than $5,000. NR 162.003 NoteNote: The following are examples of capital improvements: constructing permeable pavement or an infiltration pond to control runoff; constructing an entirely new treatment works, or new clarifiers, aeration tanks, or other major components of an existing treatment works or BMP; upgrading existing equipment or installing new, more efficient process equipment, such as equipment for pumping, dewatering, aeration, scraping, skimming, or disinfection; constructing new process, administration, and storage buildings; adding to or constructing major renovations of existing facilities; replacing or rehabilitating aged or undersized sanitary sewer pipes; replacing a roof on a treatment plant building; constructing a new lift station or upgrading an existing lift station; installing security, a supervisory control and data acquisition system, or monitoring equipment as part of a scored project; or purchasing an existing treatment facility, land on which a treatment facility will be constructed, land for buffer areas, agricultural or industrial land taken out of production in order to improve water quality in the area, or necessary mobile assets, such as a street sweeper. Replacing an old pump with a new pump that is the same size and efficiency as the old pump is not considered a capital improvement; rather, it is maintenance.
NR 162.003(9m)(9m) “CBOD” means the pollutant parameter carbonaceous biochemical oxygen demand. NR 162.003(10)(10) “Census block” means the smallest unit for which the U.S. bureau of the census collects and tabulates population information in the decennial census and income information in the ACS. NR 162.003(11)(11) “Census designated place” means a statistical area delineated for each decennial census according to U.S. bureau of the census guidelines for the purpose of presenting census data and ACS data for a concentration of population, housing, and commercial structures that is locally identifiable by name, but is not within an incorporated place. NR 162.003(12)(12) “Census tract” means a small, relatively permanent statistical subdivision of a county used in the decennial census and the ACS, delineated for the purpose of presenting data, typically following visible features or governmental boundaries or both, including approximately 4,000 inhabitants, and designed to be a relatively homogeneous unit with respect to population characteristics, economic status, and living conditions. NR 162.003(13)(13) “Change order” means an action that specifies and justifies a change to a construction contract that alters the time of completion or the total price, or both. NR 162.003(14)(14) “Clean water fund program” or “CWFP” means the program established under ss. 25.43, 281.58, and 281.59, Stats., for the purpose of providing financial assistance to municipalities for the planning, design, and construction of treatment works and BMPs. NR 162.003(15)(15) “Compliance maintenance” means the program established and regulated under ch. NR 208, intended to prevent a permittee under ch. 283, Stats., from exceeding an effluent limitation contained in a permit issued under ch. 283, Stats. NR 162.003(16)(16) “Construction” means a set of actions taken to make a capital improvement, including any of the following actions: NR 162.003(16)(a)(a) Building, erecting, extending, or assembling a treatment works or BMP or a new major asset for an existing treatment works or BMP. NR 162.003(16)(b)(b) Preparing a construction site or sites of a scored project for work activities, including grading, staking, digging, and demolition or abandonment of existing structures. NR 162.003(16)(c)(c) Purchasing a package wastewater treatment system or capacity in an existing treatment works. NR 162.003(16)(d)(d) Altering, modifying, improving, upgrading, rehabilitating, or adding to existing treatment works facilities or BMPs. NR 162.003(16)(e)(e) Performing major repairs or replacing major components of existing facilities. NR 162.003(16)(f)(f) Installing new piping or mechanical, electrical, or electronic equipment or facilities. NR 162.003(16)(g)(g) Remediation of illicit discharges to an MS4 or runoff treatment works. NR 162.003(17)(17) “Custom tabulation” means a special tabulation of income data from the ACS microdata files that is performed by the U.S. bureau of the census, is not part of the standard ACS data tabulations, and results in generation of a median household income for an area designated by the applicant as the boundaries of a town sanitary district, public inland lake protection and rehabilitation district, or metropolitan sewerage district, or of the area served by the treatment works if the treatment works serves only a portion of the place or minor civil division in which it is located. NR 162.003(18)(18) “Department” means the department of natural resources. NR 162.003(19)(19) “Design flow” means the average annual flow or average daily flow specified in an approved facilities plan or approved plans and specifications, the flow specified in a WPDES permit, or the flow required to meet performance standards. NR 162.003(20)(20) “Disadvantaged business enterprise” or “DBE” means a business entity certified as disadvantaged under the U.S. department of transportation unified certification program or other program approved by the U.S. environmental protection agency to certify disadvantaged businesses. NR 162.003 NoteNote: Under s. 283.01 (4), Stats., “discharge,” when used without qualification, includes a discharge of any pollutant. Under s. 283.01 (5), Stats., “discharge of pollutant” or “discharge of pollutants” means any addition of any pollutant to the waters of this state from any point source. NR 162.003 NoteNote: 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. NR 162.003(24)(a)(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. NR 162.003(24)(b)(b) Performing engineering, architectural, geotechnical, hydrogeological, environmental, archaeological, biological, fiscal, or economic investigations or studies. NR 162.003(24)(c)(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. NR 162.003(24)(d)(d) Preparing surveys, designs, plans, bidding documentation, working drawings, specifications, or as-built drawings. NR 162.003(24)(e)(e) Coordinating, observing, inspecting, or supervising any of the activities under pars. (a) to (d) or under sub. (16). NR 162.003(25)(25) “Equipment replacement fund” means a separate fund established by a 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. NR 162.003(26)(26) “Financial assistance” includes one or more of the following actions taken by the department and DOA under ss. 281.58 and 281.59, Stats.: NR 162.003(26)(a)(a) Providing a loan, principal forgiveness, interest rate subsidies, a guarantee, or credit enhancement to a municipality. NR 162.003(26)(b)(b) Refinancing a municipality’s interim debt obtained for the scored project. NR 162.003(27)(27) “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. NR 162.003(28)(28) “Financial assistance agreement amendment” means a formal, written change to an existing financial assistance agreement executed by all parties to the original agreement. NR 162.003(29)(29) “Force account work” means engineering, construction, or other project-specific activities performed by a municipality’s paid employees or use of equipment owned by the municipality in construction of the project, or both. NR 162.003 NoteNote: Under s. 160.01 (4), Stats., “groundwater” means any of the waters of the state, as defined in s. 281.01 (18), occurring in a saturated subsurface geological formation of rock or soil. NR 162.003 NoteNote: Under s. NR 216.002 (11), “illicit discharge” means any discharge to a municipal separate storm sewer system that is not composed entirely of storm water except discharges authorized by a WPDES permit or other discharge not requiring a WPDES permit such as landscape irrigation, individual residential car washing, fire fighting, diverted stream flows, uncontaminated groundwater infiltration, uncontaminated pumped groundwater, discharges from potable water sources, foundation drains, air conditioning condensation, irrigation water, lawn watering, flows from riparian habitats and wetlands, and similar discharges. NR 162.003 NoteNote: Under s. 281.58 (1) (c), Stats., “industrial user” means any of the following: NR 162.003 Note1. Any nongovernmental, nonresidential user of a publicly owned treatment work which discharges more than the equivalent of 25,000 gallons per day of sanitary wastes, other than domestic wastes or discharges from sanitary conveniences, or discharges a volume that has the weight of biochemical oxygen demand or suspended solids at least as great as the weight found in 25,000 gallons per day of sanitary waste from residential users, and which is identified in the standard industrial classification manual, 1972, federal office of management and budget, as amended and supplemented as of October 1, 1978, under one of the following divisions:
NR 162.003 Notea. Division A: agriculture, forestry, and fishing.
NR 162.003 Noteb. Division B: mining.
NR 162.003 Notec. Division D: manufacturing.
NR 162.003 Noted. Division E: transportation, communications, electric, gas, and sanitary services.
NR 162.003 Notee. Division I: services.
NR 162.003 Note2. Any nongovernmental user of a publicly owned treatment work which discharges wastewater to the treatment work which contains toxic pollutants or poisonous solids, liquids or gases in sufficient quantity, either singly or by interaction with other wastes, to contaminate the sludge of any municipal system, to injure or interfere with any sewage treatment process, to constitute a hazard to humans or animals, to create a public nuisance, or to create any hazard in or have an adverse effect on the waters receiving any discharge from the treatment works.
NR 162.003 Note3. All commercial users of an individual system constructed with grant assistance under s. 281.57. NR 162.003 NoteNote: Under s. NR 110.03 (16), “infiltration” means water other than wastewater that enters a sewerage system (including sewer service connections) from the ground through such sources as defective pipes, pipe joints, connections, or manholes. Infiltration does not include, and is distinguished from, inflow.
