Proposed 2022 Clean Water Act Financial Capability Assessment Guidance

Issuing agencies

Abstract

When municipal discharges cause violations of the Clean Water Act (CWA), EPA sets a schedule for the municipality to address them as soon as possible. When developing schedules to implement the control measures, EPA considers factors such as public health, environmental protection, and a community's financial capability. The Proposed 2022 Financial Capability Assessment (FCA) Guidance describes the financial information and formulas the Agency intends to use to assess the financial resources a community has available to implement control measures. The Proposed 2022 FCA directly incorporates relevant portions of the 1997 Combined Sewer Overflows--Guidance for Financial Capability Assessment and Schedule Development (1997 FCA Guidance) and EPA's 2014 Financial Capability Assessment Framework for Municipal Clean Water Act Requirements (2014 FCA Framework) as Appendices. Once finalized, EPA intends for the Proposed 2022 FCA to replace the 1997 FCA Guidance to evaluate a community's capability to fund CWA control measures in both the permitting and enforcement context. Additionally, EPA intends Section IV.g of the 2022 FCA to assist states and authorized tribes in the consideration of economic impacts to public entities for supporting revisions to designated uses, water quality standard (WQS) variances, and antidegradation reviews for high quality waters. The Proposed 2022 FCA reflects EPA's consideration of public comments received in response to its September 18, 2020 Federal Register publication. The contents of this guidance document do not have the force and effect of law and are not meant to bind the public in any way. This document is intended only to provide clarity to the public regarding existing requirements under the law or agency policies.