NR 166.01(1)(1) Establish rules under ss. 281.59 and 281.61, Stats., for the implementation and administration of a financial assistance program for the engineering and construction of public water system projects. NR 166.01(2)(2) Establish a priority system for the distribution of safe drinking water loan program financial assistance as provided in s. 281.61, Stats., and the mechanisms and methodology to be used to modify the priority system. NR 166.01 NoteNote: All forms necessary for financial assistance under this chapter are available on the department’s website. Paper forms may be acquired at no charge 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 systems.
NR 166.01 HistoryHistory: CR 22-068: cr. Register October 2023 No. 814, eff. 11-1-23. NR 166.02NR 166.02 Applicability. This chapter applies to all applicants for and recipients of financial assistance for the engineering and construction of public water systems made under ss. 281.59 and 281.61, 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. 281.59 and 281.61, Stats. NR 166.02 HistoryHistory: CR 22-068: cr. Register October 2023 No. 814, eff. 11-1-23. NR 166.03NR 166.03 Definitions. In this chapter: NR 166.03(2)(2) “Amendment” means a formal, written change to an existing legal agreement or contract executed by all parties to the original agreement or contract. NR 166.03(3)(3) “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 166.03(4)(4) “Applicant” means any municipality that submits to the department any of the following for financial assistance under this chapter: NR 166.03(4)(a)(a) Priority evaluation and ranking information as required by the department. NR 166.03(5)(5) “Approval” means the written approval of the department. NR 166.03(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 166.03(7)(7) “Breach of contract” means the failure of the financial assistance recipient to comply with any of the following: NR 166.03(7)(a)(a) The terms and conditions of the financial assistance agreement. NR 166.03(7)(b)(b) The terms and conditions of the municipal obligation resolution authorizing the issuance and sale of bonds or notes to the safe drinking water loan program. NR 166.03(8)(8) “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 provision of safe drinking water by a municipality, including trucks and other tangible assets with a single item cost of greater than $5,000. NR 166.03 NoteNote: The following are examples of capital improvements: drilling a new well and constructing a well house; upgrading existing equipment or installing new, more efficient process equipment, such as pumps, or treatment equipment, such as chemical feed equipment; constructing new buildings or facilities; adding to or constructing major renovations of existing facilities; replacing aged or undersized water mains; constructing a water system crossing of a highway, railroad, or waterbody; constructing a watermain loop to eliminate one or more dead ends in the water system; constructing, upgrading, or improving an existing storage tank, including recoating the entire exterior or entire interior, or both, of a storage tank; or installing security, a supervisory control and data acquisition system, or monitoring equipment as part of a scored project. 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 166.03(9)(9) “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 166.03(10)(10) “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 166.03(11)(11) “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 166.03(12)(12) “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 166.03(14)(14) “Construction” means a set of actions taken to make a capital improvement, including any of the following actions if the set of actions is the most cost effective solution to the problem being solved with the project: NR 166.03(14)(a)(a) Building, erecting, extending, or assembling a water system or a new major asset for an existing water system. NR 166.03(14)(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 166.03(14)(c)(c) Purchasing an entire existing water system or buying capacity in an existing water system owned by another entity. NR 166.03(14)(d)(d) Altering, modifying, improving, upgrading, rehabilitating, or adding to existing water system facilities. NR 166.03(14)(e)(e) Performing major repairs or replacing major components of existing facilities. NR 166.03(14)(f)(f) Installing new piping or mechanical, electrical, or electronic equipment or facilities. NR 166.03(16)(16) “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 municipal water district, or of the area served by the water system if the water system serves only a portion of the place or minor civil division in which it is located. NR 166.03(17)(17) “Department” means the department of natural resources. NR 166.03(18)(18) “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 166.03(19)(19) “Distribution system” means all pipes or conduits by which water is delivered to consumers except piping and fixtures inside buildings served and private service lines. NR 166.03(21)(a)(a) Performing preliminary planning to determine the need for or the feasibility of building or modifying a water system. NR 166.03(21)(b)(b) Performing engineering, architectural, geotechnical, hydrogeological, environmental, archaeological, biological, fiscal, or economic investigations or studies. NR 166.03(21)(c)(c) Preparing surveys, designs, plans, bidding documentation, working drawings, specifications, or as-built drawings. NR 166.03(21)(d)(d) Coordinating, observing, inspecting, or supervising any of the activities under pars. (a) to (c) or under sub. (14). NR 166.03(22)(22) “Financial assistance” includes one or more of the following actions taken by the department and DOA under ss. 281.59 and 281.61, Stats.: NR 166.03(22)(a)(a) Providing a loan, principal forgiveness, a guarantee, or credit enhancement to a municipality. NR 166.03(22)(b)(b) Refinancing a municipality’s interim debt obtained for the project. NR 166.03(23)(23) “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 under this chapter to the municipality. NR 166.03(24)(24) “Financial assistance agreement amendment” means a formal, written change to an existing financial assistance agreement executed by all parties to the original agreement. NR 166.03(25)(25) “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 166.03(26)(26) “Future growth” means distribution system expansion beyond the existing system and excess capacity built into facilities that exceeds standard engineering practices. NR 166.03(27)(27) “Interim debt” means a financial liability that is subject to repayment and incurred by an applicant to temporarily finance a scored project until permanent financing is obtained from the SDWLP, including liabilities in the form of lines of credit, short-term loans from the board of commissioners of public lands, bank loans, bond anticipation notes, general obligation bonds, revenue bonds, general obligation promissory notes, and certificates of indebtedness. NR 166.03(28)(28) “Interim debt costs” means the net interest, fees, and charges associated with issuing interim debt, including municipal advisor fees, attorney fees, printing costs, bond rating charges, and trustee fees. NR 166.03(29)(29) “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 watermain repair when a pipe bursts, including all of the following types of maintenance: NR 166.03(29)(a)(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. NR 166.03(29)(b)(b) Corrective maintenance, including unscheduled maintenance repairs to correct deficiencies during the year in which they occur. NR 166.03(29)(c)(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. NR 166.03(29)(d)(d) Recurring maintenance, including preventive maintenance activities that recur on a periodic and scheduled cycle of greater than one year, but less than 10 years. NR 166.03(29)(e)(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. Storage tank recoating is an exception to this maintenance definition. NR 166.03(29)(f)(f) Emergency maintenance, 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, subject to all of the following: NR 166.03(29)(f)1.1. Unscheduled activities and repairs, such as repairing watermain breaks or mechanical malfunctions in aged or damaged infrastructure, are considered emergency maintenance under this paragraph. NR 166.03(29)(f)2.2. 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 are not considered emergency maintenance under this paragraph. NR 166.03(29)(g)(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. NR 166.03(32)(32) “MCL exceedance” means the analytical results of sampling for microbiological, inorganic, synthetic organic, volatile organic, disinfection byproducts, or radionuclide contaminants, as determined by methodology outlined in ch. NR 809, exceed the MCL of the contaminant. NR 166.03(34)(34) “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. NR 166.03(35)(35) “Minority business enterprise” or “MBE” means a DBE that is owned or controlled on a daily basis by one or more minority group members. NR 166.03(36)(36) “Municipality” means a city, village, town, county, town sanitary district, public inland lake protection and rehabilitation district, joint local water authority created under s. 66.0823, Stats., or municipal water district. NR 166.03 NoteNote: To be eligible for financial assistance from the safe drinking water loan program, an entity must be of a type included in the definition of “municipality” under s. 281.59 (1) (c), Stats. However, “municipality” includes some entities that are not eligible to receive safe drinking water loan program financial assistance because they are not eligible under federal regulations. The types of entities that are eligible to receive safe drinking water loan program financial assistance are those included in the definition of “local governmental unit” under s. 281.61 (1) (am), Stats. If a municipal water district applies for safe drinking water loan program financial assistance, the recipient of the financial assistance is the incorporated place, rather than the utility itself. NR 166.03(37)(37) “Non–community water system” means a public water system that is not a community water system. NR 166.03(38)(38) “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: NR 166.03(38)(a)(a) Operational maintenance activities related to continuing normal performance of the functions for which a water system asset or item of equipment is intended, such as lubricating gates and valves and removing organic growth or sediment, or related to keeping building systems such as HVAC, lighting, and electrical utilities working properly. NR 166.03(38)(b)(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. NR 166.03(38)(c)(c) Trash removal activities to dispose of hazardous and non-hazardous waste and debris and to recycle products such as paper, cans, and bottles. NR 166.03(38)(d)(d) Snow and ice removal and activities to treat surfaces to eliminate unsafe weather-related conditions. NR 166.03(38)(e)(e) Office activities related to billing, collections, customer communications, personnel, and other types of work activities that support the administration of the water system. NR 166.03(38)(f)(f) Monitoring and record-keeping activities associated with making sure all components of the water system are working properly, including sampling, testing, analyzing data from a supervisory control and data acquisition system, patrolling and inspecting, reading gauges and meters, keeping plant logs and records, and preparing operations reports. NR 166.03(39)(39) “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. NR 166.03(40)(40) “Plans and specifications” means project drawings and specification manuals for all construction work to be included in the financial assistance for the scored project. NR 166.03(41)(41) “Population” means the most recent year’s final population estimate published by the DOA demographic services center for the city, town, or village that submitted priority evaluation and ranking information as required by the department. For a public water system owned by other than a city, town, or village, “population” means the most recent population count or estimate done for the system or municipality and provided to the department by the municipality for purposes such as completing a sanitary survey or an estimate determined by multiplying the number of households served by the water system by the average household size in the area, as determined by the department. NR 166.03(42)(42) “Priority score” means the numerical value determined by the department that is assigned to each project in accordance with ss. NR 166.23 and 166.24. NR 166.03(43)(43) “Private service line” means the portion of a service line that is privately-owned. NR 166.03 NoteNote: The privately-owned portion is typically the segment that is downstream of the curb stop and located on private property but may include a portion in the public right of way if the municipality considers the private residential, commercial, institutional, or industrial users to be the owners of the complete service line from the publicly-owned water main to the private structure being served.
NR 166.03(44)(44) “Professional services” means non-construction work provided under contract for the project, including engineering, archaeological, legal, financial, or technical services, provided by a higher education institution or a formally certified member of a professional body, such as a trade association or organized profession. NR 166.03(45)(45) “Project” means a set of activities intended to result, or that has resulted in completed construction of drinking water system related facilities.
