Earlier this week, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the Water Infrastructure Improvement Act (H.R. 7279) and sent it to the U.S. Senate for a vote before the end of the year.
The bill defines Integrated Planning (IP) to be a plan developed consistent with US EPA’s Integrated Municipal Stormwater and Wastewater Planning Approach requires US EPA to inform agencies of the opportunity to develop IP’s that would result in a permit relating to:
- CSO’s
- Capacity management plans for collection systems
- Stormwater discharges
- Wasteload allocations related to TMDL’s
In the bill, projects that are eligible for an IP include:
- Reclaiming, recycling or reusing water
- Green infrastructure defined to be projects that include plant and soil systems, permeable pavement, stormwater harvesting, reuse, or landscaping to store, infiltrate, ore evapotranspirate stormwater and reduce flows to sewer systems or to surface waters (US EPA tasked with promoting such projects, including at the regional office level)
