7 posts tagged “environment”
Today is Blog Action Day! Take action by posting about the environment in your own way. Okay, I have 5 acres in Vermont, part of it is endangered wetland. I want someone to put an RV barn on it who appreciates that type of land as I do. I would like to have some land in Alabama where I now live to appreciate.
I fought to keep this land. I love it. I want to share it.
I WANT A POND WITH A FOUNTAIN/JET OF WATER AND A FLOATING "RESTORER" WITH PLANTS ON IT.
THE "RESTORER" WILL BE MADE BY AN ARTIST OF CLAY KILN FIRED GLAZED.
The Secret of Old Age
(One week in Greene County)
by Cheryl Moyer
With a rusty bucket in hand
in worn overalls as patched
and thin as his shoes he
walked along the side of the
road..... He was 74 years old
and carrying fresh cut greens
to his daughter's house 13 miles away.
Minnie who was 69 was
running off to work to take
care of an "old woman" of 91.
Sarah was 82 and her mom 99.
They sewed quilts for a living
and were preparing for the
mother's 100th birthday party
soon to come.
I stopped to ask directions
from Georgia who was hanging
clothes on the line, she said
she was 105. She had cleaned
houses all her life.
So I asked her the Alabama
secret for old age:
Was it the slow living in the warm sun?
Was it the clean air, or pure water?
Was it good food prepared by loving hands?
She smiled and said "Yes, it's all that"
"But mostly........ it's the hard work".
Then she hung another shirt
up on the line.
DOWN IN THE DIRT
http://scars.tv/cgi-bin/writers.pl
http://www.randomhouse.com/knopf/poetry/forum/index.cgi?page=19&messages_per_page=20
MY FAVORITE RESEARCH TOPIC
SEE MY COLLECTION OF LINKS: www.usda.gov/rus/water. www.nesc.wvu.edu
http://ianrpubs.unl.edu/wastemgt/ec798.pdf NEBRASKA!
USING AIR
http://www.biomicrobics.com/Products/MicroFAST/about_MCF.html
CONSTRUCTED WETLANDS FOR WASTEWATER TREATMENT
http://www.nawe-pa.com/docs/Article%20-%20014.pdf
VIRGINIA !!! http://www.ext.vt.edu/pubs/waterquality/448-406/448-406.html
PURDUE ...HUGE LIST OF LINKS ON INNOVATIVE SYSTEMS!!!
http://danpatch.ecn.purdue.edu/~epados/onsiteOnline/articles.htm
ALL YOU NEED TO KNOW FROM IDEA TO FUNDING
RUS WATER AND WASTEWATER LOANS AND
GRANTS PROGRAM
Between 1940 and 2006, the U.S. Department of
Agriculture’s Rural Utilities Service (RUS, formerly the
Farmers Home Administration) has funded water and
wastewater projects valued at more than $35 billion. Many
small and rural community water systems would never have
been completed without these loans and grants.
Along with the drinking water state revolving loan fund,
the RUS water/waste disposal (WWD) loan program is the
major source of funding for small and rural communities
seeking to build, improve, or expand their water or wastewater
facilities. During the last (2006) fiscal year, RUS
distributed $1.5 billion in program funding—$1 billion in
the form of low-interest loans and $500 million in grants—
through its network of rural development (RD) offices. If
your community hasn’t benefited from this program,
chances are the folks down the road have.
Who is eligible?
How do you know if your town can participate in the
WWD program? To be eligible for an RUS loan, a system
must:
• be a local government, a cooperative, not-for-profit
corporation, or an Indian tribe;
• provide service to a rural area or town of fewer than
10,000 people;
• be unable to self-finance the project or secure other
financing at a reasonable rate;
• have the authority to construct, operate, and maintain
the facility; and,
• be legally able to secure and repay the loan.
If your system meets all of these requirements, you may
qualify for RUS funds.
Funding Has Many Uses
RUS program financing can be used for most costs
related to the building or expansion of a water or wastewater
project. These costs can include construction, legal
expenses, engineering, and initial operating costs. RUS
funds can account for most of the project financing and,
in some cases, all of it. In many cases, other government
programs (local, state, and federal) make up what RUS
can’t provide.
In fact, RUS encourages borrowers to seek joint funding
whenever possible. Usually, an approved applicant
receives a combination of a loan and a small grant.
Because they don’t have to be repaid, grants are more
desirable. RUS determines whether an applicant is eligible
for a grant based on the median household income of the
area being served. If the community meets certain income
requirements, the size of the grant is based on the user
rates a system will have to charge to its customers to fund
the project.
Grants help reduce project costs so the water or wastewater
service can be provided at “reasonable” rates.
Reasonable user rates are determined by similar system
costs: what other communities are paying for the same
type of service. The system receiving RUS funds is compared
to neighboring communities that have similar
population, income, and water or wastewater systems.
The rates from the other communities are used as a
basis for determining what would be a reasonable average
user cost in the community requesting RUS funds. RUS
can provide up to 100 percent of a project’s funding, but a
maximum of 75 percent of that funding can be in the
form of grants.
“One needs to look no further than the projects funded
to see the impact we have had on removing public health
hazards, creating growth opportunities and improving the
quality of life for people living in rural America,” says Gary
Morgan, Assistant Administrator, RUS Water and
Environmental Programs.
How does the process work?
A preliminary eligibility determination starts the process.
A community planning to apply for RUS funding should
do so as early as possible by submitting a standard application
form, available at any state or local RD office. The
application generally determines if the community meets
the population, median income, and other eligibility
requirements.
The application is then reviewed by RUS officials at the
state RD office. If the document meets all criteria, RUS
officials prepare for an application conference with community
officials. At this point, RUS officials can look at the
history of similar projects in the region and offer general
advice as to what type of system should be installed, as
well as some idea of the proposed project’s per-household
cost.
RUS officials feel one important matter discussed at the
application conference is the selection of a consulting
engineer. Community officials should stress to the engineer
the importance of designing a system modest in
scope and design and according to RD regulations.
Communities should also check an engineer’s references
and consult with other communities the engineer may
have worked with before hiring the engineer.
26 On Tap Spring 2007
By Mark Kemp-Rye,
On Tap Editor
After all of these concerns are addressed, the RUS process
may be postponed so that state government officials can
submit relevant comments or give any needed project
approval, such as from the state environmental office. State
RUS representatives must then determine if the project is:
• Technically feasible—the preliminary engineering
report is used to study community needs and ensure
than an appropriate system design is being proposed.
• Environmentally feasible—this step addresses such
concerns as, “Is the system being constructed in a
floodplain?” And, “Will any wetlands be disturbed?”
• Legally feasible—Engineering and legal contracts are
reviewed as well as any water purchase agreements
and project-related property purchases.
• Financially feasible—this analysis determines whether
adequate revenue will be generated to cover the system’s
operating costs, debt service, and other expenses.
Once all the feasibility issues are dealt with and any state
input is received, the final step to loan approval is a letter
of conditions. This letter explains the list of requirements
the applicant will have to accomplish in order to close the
loan and receive the funds. If the applicant agrees to the
terms in the letter of conditions, the approval is signed by
the state RD director.
It Ain’t Over Yet
The time involved in the total RUS loan application
process is difficult to estimate. The feasibility study alone
can require anywhere from a minimum of three months to
upwards of a year. After RUS approves a loan and/or grant,
there is still a lot of work to be done. The engineer has to
finish the design work, and the state engineer has to
approve the design once it is complete. That entire process
can take a year or so on a big project.
To make sure that higher priority projects are funded
first, a rating system is used. Each approved application is
given a score based on various criteria, the main factors
being population (smaller communities receive priority),
income (low-income residents receive priority), and public
health (pressing health and sanitation problems receive
priority). Each state office begins funding the projects with
the highest priority first and works down the list until the
money is gone or all prepared applications are funded.
Each state knows in advance how much money it will
have for projects in a given fiscal year. State offices try to
have enough projects lined up to account for about 150
percent of its allocations. This allows each state office to
use its allocation even if a few applications are withdrawn
or delayed.
Lower Rates, Longer Terms
A community’s RUS loan is set at one of three rates—
poverty, intermediate, and market rate—based on the
community’s median income. Current loans are in the 4.125
to 4.5 percent range, which is much lower than rates
offered by commercial banks. RUS may also extend loans
for up to 40 years, making the debt service payment more
reasonable and affordable for the community.
“I believe we offer a unique service to rural America,”
says Morgan. “The combination of technical assistance,
affordable financing, and partnerships helps create viable
communities where people can live and prosper.”
Whether you are seeking an RUS loan or money from another
source, most funding agencies need background information
to determine whether or not a community is eligible.
Here are some items funding agencies typically request:
• an overview of the proposed project;
• rough cost estimates of the project;
• health or environmental problems the current
systemfaces;
• current and projected user rates;
• number of residential and commercial users;
• total amounts of water used in a given time period
(e.g., daily,weekly, monthly)
• median household income of the service area; and
• population of the service area.
These various pieces of information are easily obtained. Once
eligibility is determined, applicants are then encouraged to
file a formal application for their project.
The application process for RUS loans and grants has
four components:
Initial Contact
RUS used to require a pre-application for communities seeking
a loan or grant.Now, applicants can usually find out if
they’re eligible from their state rural development (RD)
office.To locate your state office, check the blue pages in
your phonebook or call the National Drinking Water
Clearinghouse at (800) 624-8301. Information is also available
on the RUS Web site at www.usda.gov/rus/water.
Application Conference
If the preliminary eligibility determination is favorable, an RUS
representative meets with the applicant to discuss how to complete
the final application and how to select a project engineer.
The application is available at any state or local RD office.
Feasibility
After the formal application is submitted, RUS officials determine
if the project is technically, environmentally, legally, and
financially feasible.More detailed documentation is usually
required at this step.
Approval
Projects are approved and prioritized at the state level.The
number of projects funded depends on the amount of federal
appropriations available in that fiscal year.Approved applicants
may receive both a loan and small grant, depending on
the availability of grant funds.
What information do I need?
RUS Application Process
www.nesc.wvu.edu 27
http://www.nowra.org/documents/OnsiteJournalSpring2007.pdf
http://www.nowra.org/rmeutility.pdf
http://www.nowra.org/stategroups.html
http://www.neiwpcc.org/rcproject.asp
(Innovative Systems)
http://www.neiwpcc.org/neiwpcc_docs/aoeq.pdf
Documents describing systems
http://www.neiwpcc.org/neiwpcc_docs/aoflout.pdf
http://ohioline.osu.edu/a-fact/0005.html
Constructed Wetlands
http://cals.arizona.edu/AZWATER/arroyo/094wet.html
http://www.thevillageproject.com/pdfs/Sec7-Wastewater.pdf
http://cobweb.ecn.purdue.edu/~epados/onsiteOnline/articles.htm
Purdue's long list of LINKS!
http://www.wastewatergardens.com/pdf/NELSON_Ecotechnics.pdf
http://www.wastewatergardens.com/2en_papers.html
In Three Languages
http://www.nal.usda.gov/wqic/Constructed_Wetlands_all/cwhw.ht
LIVING MACHINES!!!
Living Machines:
Analysis for use in the New Bell Museum
http://arch.cdes.umn.edu/academic_programs/MS/MS_SD/curriculum/8567/Living%20Machines%20for%20Bell.pdf
