2007 Minnesota Statutes

116.16 MINNESOTA STATE WATER POLLUTION CONTROL PROGRAM.
    Subdivision 1. Purpose. A Minnesota state water pollution control program is created to
provide money to be granted or loaned to agencies and subdivisions of the state for the acquisition
and betterment of public land, buildings, and improvements of a capital nature needed for the
prevention, control, and abatement of water pollution in accordance with the long-range state
policy, plan, and program established in sections 115.41 to 115.63, and in accordance with
standards adopted pursuant to law by the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency. It is determined
that state financial assistance for the construction of water pollution prevention and abatement
facilities for municipal disposal systems and combined sewer overflow is a public purpose and a
proper function of state government, in that the state is trustee of the waters of the state and such
financial assistance is necessary to protect the purity of state waters, and to protect the public
health of the citizens of the state, which is endangered whenever pollution enters state waters at
one point and flows to other points in the state.
    Subd. 2. Definitions. In this section and sections 116.17 and 116.18:
(1) agency means the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency created by this chapter;
(2) municipality means any county, city, town, the metropolitan council, or an Indian tribe
or an authorized Indian tribal organization, and any other governmental subdivision of the state
responsible by law for the prevention, control, and abatement of water pollution in any area of
the state;
(3) water pollution control program means the Minnesota state water pollution control
program created by subdivision 1;
(4) bond account means the Minnesota state water pollution control bond account created in
the state bond fund by section 116.17, subdivision 4;
(5) terms defined in section 115.01 have the meanings therein given them;
(6) the eligible cost of any municipal project, except as otherwise provided in clause (7),
includes (a) preliminary planning to determine the economic, engineering, and environmental
feasibility of the project; (b) engineering, architectural, legal, fiscal, economic, sociological,
project administrative costs of the agency and the municipality, and other investigations and
studies; (c) surveys, designs, plans, working drawings, specifications, procedures, and other
actions necessary to the planning, design, and construction of the project; (d) erection, building,
acquisition, alteration, remodeling, improvement, and extension of disposal systems; (e)
inspection and supervision of construction; and (f) all other expenses of the kinds enumerated in
section 475.65;
(7) for state grants under the state independent grants program, the eligible cost includes
the acquisition of land for stabilization ponds, the construction of collector sewers for totally
unsewered statutory and home rule charter cities and towns described under section 368.01,
subdivision 1 or 1a, that are in existence on January 1, 1985, and the provision of reserve capacity
sufficient to serve the reasonable needs of the municipality for 20 years in the case of treatment
works and 40 years in the case of sewer systems. For state grants under the state independent
grants program, the eligible cost does not include the provision of service to seasonal homes, or
cost increases from contingencies that exceed three percent of as-bid costs or cost increases from
unanticipated site conditions that exceed an additional two percent of as-bid costs;
(8) authority means the Minnesota Public Facilities Authority established in section 446A.03.
    Subd. 3. Receipts. The commissioner of finance shall deposit in the state treasury and
credit to a separate account in the bond proceeds fund as received all proceeds of Minnesota
water pollution control bonds, except accrued interest and premiums received upon the sale
thereof. All money granted to the state for such purposes by the federal government or any
agency thereof must be credited to a separate account in the federal fund. All such receipts are
annually appropriated for the permanent construction and improvement purposes of the water
pollution control program, and shall be and remain available for expenditure in accordance with
this section and federal law until the purposes for which such appropriations were made have
been accomplished or abandoned.
    Subd. 4. Disbursements. Disbursements for the water pollution control program shall be
made by the commissioner of finance at the times and in the amounts requested by the agency or
the Minnesota Public Facilities Authority in accordance with the applicable state and federal law
governing such disbursements; except that no appropriation or loan of state funds for any project
shall be disbursed to any municipality until and unless the agency has by resolution determined
the total estimated cost of the project, and ascertained that financing of the project is assured by:
(1) a grant to the municipality by an agency of the federal government within the amount of
funds then appropriated to that agency and allocated by it to projects within the state; or
(2) a grant of funds appropriated by state law; or
(3) a loan authorized by state law; or
(4) the appropriation of proceeds of bonds or other funds of the municipality to a fund for
the construction of the project; or
(5) any or all of the means referred to in clauses (1) to (4); and
(6) an irrevocable undertaking, by resolution of the governing body of the municipality, to
use all funds so made available exclusively for the construction of the project, and to pay any
additional amount by which the cost of the project exceeds the estimate, by the appropriation
to the construction fund of additional municipal funds or the proceeds of additional bonds to
be issued by the municipality; and
(7) conformity of the project and of the loan or grant application with the state water pollution
control plan as certified to the federal government and with all other conditions under applicable
state and federal law for a grant of state or federal funds of the nature and in the amount involved.
    Subd. 5. Rules. (a) The agency shall promulgate permanent rules for the administration of
grants and loans authorized to be made under the water pollution control program, which rules,
however, shall not be applicable to the issuance of bonds by the commissioner of finance as
provided in section 116.17. The rules shall contain as a minimum:
(1) procedures for application by municipalities;
(2) conditions for the administration of the grant or loan;
(3) criteria for the ranking of projects in order of priority for grants or loans, based on
factors including the extent and nature of pollution, technological feasibility, assurance of proper
operation, maintenance and replacement, and participation in multimunicipal systems; and
(4) such other matters as the agency and the commissioner find necessary to the proper
administration of the grant program.
(b) The agency shall award the amount of additional priority points necessary to place a
project in the fundable range of the intended use plan if the agency determines that the project
would repair a facility that is an imminent threat to discharge untreated or partially treated sewage
to the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness if it fails.
(c) For purposes of awarding independent state grants, the agency may by rule waive the
federal 20-year planning requirement for municipalities with a population of less than 1,500.
    Subd. 6.[Repealed, 1984 c 597 s 55]
    Subd. 7.[Repealed, 1984 c 597 s 55]
    Subd. 8. Loans. Each loan made to a municipality from the proceeds of state bonds, when
authorized by law, shall be evidenced by resolutions adopted by the agency and by the governing
body of the municipality, obligating the municipality to repay the loan to the commissioner
of finance, for credit to the water pollution control bond account in the state bond fund, in
annual installments including both principal and interest, each in an amount sufficient to pay the
principal amount within such period as may be provided by the agency in accordance with the
law authorizing the loan, with interest on the declining balance thereof at a rate not less than the
average annual interest rate on state bonds of the issue from the proceeds of which the loan was
made, and obligating the municipality to provide money for such repayment from user charges,
taxes, special assessments, or other funds available to it. For the purpose of repaying such loans
the municipality by resolution of its governing body may undertake to fix rates and charges for
disposal system service and enter into contracts for the payment by others of costs of construction,
maintenance, and use of the project in accordance with section 444.075, and may pledge the
revenues derived therefrom, and the agency may condition any such loans upon the establishment
of rates and charges or the execution of contracts sufficient to produce the revenues pledged.
    Subd. 9. Applications. Applications by municipalities for grants or loans under the water
pollution control program shall be made to the authority on forms requiring information
prescribed by rules of the agency. The authority shall send the application to the agency within ten
days of receipt. The commissioner shall certify to the authority those applications which appear to
meet the criteria set forth in sections 116.16 to 116.18 and the rules promulgated hereunder, and
the authority shall award the grants or loans on the basis of the criteria and priorities established
by the agency in its rules and in sections 116.16 to 116.18. A municipality that is designated under
agency rules to receive state or federal funding for a project and that does not make a timely
application for or that refuses the funding is not eligible for either state or federal funding for that
project in that fiscal year or the subsequent year.
    Subd. 9a. Subsequent grants. A municipality awarded a final grant of funding for a project
under the program established by the 1972 Federal Water Pollution Control Act amendments
or the state independent grants program is not eligible for additional funding to replace that
project under the federal program or the state program, unless the funding is necessary as a
result of subsequent changes in state water quality standards, effluent limits, or technical design
requirements, or for a municipality awarded the final grant before October 1, 1984, if the funding
is necessary for the provision of increased capacity.
    Subd. 10. Costs. To the extent the agency administers or engages in activities necessary
for administering any aspects of the Federal Water Pollution Control Act as amended, United
States Code, title 33, section 1251 et seq., the agency may assess the costs of such administrative
activities, in an amount not to exceed that allowed by federal law, against the federal construction
grant funds allotted to the state.
    Subd. 11. Awards of grants and loans. Upon certification by the commissioner of the
Pollution Control Agency, the authority shall notify a municipality that is to receive a grant or
loan and advise the municipality of the grant agreement or loan form or other document that must
be executed to complete the grant or loan. Upon certification from the commissioner that the
work has been completed and that payment is proper, the authority shall pay to the municipality
the periodic grant or loan payment.
    Subd. 12. Amendments. A municipality that seeks an amendment to a previously awarded
grant or loan shall follow the procedure in subdivision 9 for applying to the authority. The request
for a grant or loan amendment must be forwarded by the authority to the commissioner of the
Pollution Control Agency for consideration, and the authority shall process a grant or loan
amendment that is approved by the commissioner.
History: Ex1971 c 20 s 1; 1973 c 123 art 5 s 7; 1973 c 423 s 1-6; 1973 c 492 s 14; 1976 c 2
s 53; 1976 c 76 s 5; 1977 c 418 s 1; 1980 c 397 s 1; 1980 c 509 s 27; 1983 c 301 s 115; 1984 c
597 s 42-46; 1984 c 640 s 32; 1Sp1985 c 14 art 19 s 1,2; 1987 c 186 s 15; 1987 c 386 art 3 s
1-6; 1989 c 271 s 16-21; 1990 c 564 s 1,2; 1994 c 628 art 3 s 8; 1995 c 233 art 2 s 56; 1998 c
404 s 37; 2003 c 112 art 2 s 16,50