American Iron & Steel Waiver Requests Received by EPA
The “American Iron and Steel (AIS)” provision requires Clean Water State Revolving Fund (CWSRF) and Drinking Water State Revolving Fund (DWSRF) assistance recipients to use iron and steel products that are produced in the United States. This requirement is applicable to projects for the construction, alteration, maintenance, or repair of a public water system or treatment works. The AIS provision is a permanent requirement for all CWSRF projects. The Consolidated and Further Continuing Appropriations Act of 2015 requires the use of AIS products in DWSRF projects through September 30, 2015. The appropriation language sets forth certain circumstances under which EPA may waive American Iron and Steel requirements. A waiver may be provided if EPA determines that:
- applying these requirements would be inconsistent with the public interest;
- iron and steel products are not produced in the United States in sufficient and reasonably available quantities and of a satisfactory quality; or
- inclusion of iron and steel products produced in the United States will increase the cost of the overall project by more than 25 percent.
EPA recently posted several waiver requests received, including four separate but similar requests from Alabama, Georgia, Idaho, and Oklahoma for waivers for small systems from DWSRF AIS requirements. The comment period for these requests closes on August 25, 2015. The link to these four request letters is as follows: DWSRF Small Systems Waiver Requests (PDF)
The link to EPA’s dedicated AIS website is as follows: http://water.epa.gov/grants_funding/aisrequirement.cfm
