The following words and terms, when used in this chapter, shall have the following meanings, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise. Words defined in Chapter 15 of the Texas Water Code, and not defined here shall have the meanings provided by the chapter or subchapter as appropriate.

1. (1) Act--The Federal Water Pollution Control Act, as amended, 33 U.S.C.A. 1251 et. seq., as amended.
2. (2) Applicant--The entity applying for financial assistance, the entity receiving financial assistance, and the entity owning the project funded under this chapter or an entity authorized to act on behalf of another eligible Applicant.
3. (3) Application--The forms provided by the executive administrator that must be completed for consideration for financial assistance.
4. (4) Authorized representative--The person authorized by the Applicant and directed by the Applicant's governing body to file the application and to sign documents relating to the project, on behalf of the Applicant.
5. (5) Board--The Texas Water Development Board.
6. (6) Bonds--All bonds, notes, certificates of obligation, book-entry obligations, and debt obligations authorized to be issued by any political subdivision.
7. (7) Capitalization grant--The federal grant awarded annually by the EPA to the State to fund the CWSRF.
8. (8) Clean Water State Revolving Fund (CWSRF)--The financial assistance program authorized by Texas Water Code, Chapter 15, Subchapter J.
9. (9) Closing--The exchange of the Applicant's approved debt instruments or loan agreement in return for CWSRF financial assistance.
10. (10) Commission--The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality or TCEQ.
11. (11) Commitment--An action of the Board, evidenced by a resolution, approving a request for financial assistance pursuant to this chapter.
12. (12) Construction--The erection, acquisition, alteration, remodel, rehabilitation, improvement or extension of wastewater facilities.
13. (13) Construction fund--A dedicated source of funds, created and maintained by the Applicant at a designated state depository institution, used solely for a Board approved project.
14. (14) Construction contract documents--The engineering drawings, maps, technical specifications, design reports, instructions and other contract terms, conditions and forms developed in sufficient detail to allow contractors to bid on the work.
15. (15) Davis Bacon Act--The federal statute at 40 U.S.C.A. §3141 et seq., as amended and in conformance with the U.S. Department of Labor regulations at 29 CFR Part 5 (Labor Standards Provisions Applicable to Contracts Covering Federally Financed and Assisted Construction) and 29 CFR Part 3 (Contractors and Subcontractors on Public Work Financed in Whole or in Part by Loans or Grants from the United States).
16. (16) Debt--All bonds or other documents issued by any political subdivision to be used to pledge repayment of the Board's financial assistance.
17. (17) Design phase--The project phase during which the Applicant prepares the project design documents including surveys, plans, working drawings, specifications and any procedures and protocols to be used during the design of the project.
18. (18) Disadvantaged community--The service area or portion of a service area that has an adjusted median household income that is no more than 75% of the state median household income for the most recent year for which statistics are available; and if the service area is not charged for sewer services, has a household cost factor for water rates that is greater than or equal to one percent; or if the service area is charged for water and sewer services, has a combined household cost factor for water and sewer rates that is greater than or equal to two percent. The Board may alter or add to these cost factors to provide financial assistance to an entity that cannot otherwise afford a state revolving fund loan.
19. (19) Disaster--The occurrence or imminent threat of widespread or severe damage, injury, or loss of life or property resulting from any natural or man-made cause, including fire, flood, earthquake, wind, storm, wave action, oil spill or other water contamination, volcanic activity, epidemic, air contamination, blight, drought, infestation, explosion, riot, hostile military or paramilitary action, other public calamity requiring emergency action, or energy emergency as defined in Texas Government Code §418.004.
20. (20) Eligible applicant--A waste treatment management agency including any interstate agencies, or any city, commission, county, district, river authority, or other public body created by or pursuant to state law that has authority to dispose of sewage, industrial wastes, or other waste; or an authorized Indian tribal organization; or any person applying for financial assistance to build a nonpoint source pollution control project pursuant to the Act, §319; or any person applying for financial assistance for an estuary management project pursuant to the Act, §320.
21. (21) Engineering feasibility report--Those necessary plans and studies that directly relate to the project and that are needed in order to assure compliance with the enforceable requirements of the Act and state statutes. The engineering feasibility data should consist of a systematic evaluation of alternatives that are feasible in light of the unique demographic, topographic, hydrologic, and institutional characteristics of the area that is also demonstrated to be cost-effective.
22. (22) Environmental affirmation--The Board's acceptance of the environmental determination made prior to the release of design or construction funds for federally funded pre-design financial assistance.
23. (23) EPA--The United States Environmental Protection Agency.
24. (24) Escrow--The transfer of funds to an eligible state depository institution until such funds are eligible for release.
25. (25) Escrow agent--The state depository institution appointed to hold the funds that are not eligible for release to the Applicant.
26. (26) Estuary management plan--A plan for the conservation and management of an estuary of national significance as described in the Act, §320.
27. (27) Estuary management project--A project to develop or implement an estuary management plan.
28. (28) Executive administrator--The executive administrator of the Board or a designated representative.
29. (29) Financial assistance--Loans, including principal forgiveness and negative interest loans as well as grants to eligible Applicants.
30. (30) Federally funded loans--Financial Assistance funded in whole or in part from the federal funds portion of the CWSRF; also known as equivalency or Tier III loans.
31. (31) Force majeure--Acts of god, strikes, lockouts or other industrial disturbances, acts of the public enemy, war, blockades, insurrections, riots, epidemics, landslides, lightning, earthquakes, fires, storms, floods, washouts, droughts, tornadoes, hurricanes, arrests and restraints of government and people, explosions, breakage or damage to machinery, pipelines or canals, and any other inabilities of either party, whether similar to those enumerated or otherwise, and not within the control of the party claiming such inability, which by the exercise of due diligence and care such party could not have avoided.
32. (32) Fund--The CWSRF created pursuant to the Texas Water Code, Subchapter J, Chapter 15.
33. (33) Green project--A project or project components that, when implemented, will result in energy efficiency, water efficiency, green infrastructure or environmental innovation and that are characterized as green projects either categorically or by utilizing a business case approved by the executive administrator.
34. (34) Green project reserve--A federal directive requiring a specified portion of the capitalization grant to be used for green projects.
35. (35) Intended use plan--A document prepared annually by the Board, subject to public review and comment that identifies the intended uses of all CWSRF program funds and describes how those uses support the goals of the CWSRF.

36. (36) Investment pool--An entity created under the Public Funds Investment Act, Chapter 2256, Government Code, as amended, to invest public funds jointly on behalf of the entities that participate in the pool and whose investment objectives in order of priority are:

    1. (A) preservation and safety of principal;
    2. (B) liquidity; and
    3. (C) yield.
37. (37) Lending rate--The rate of interest applicable to a particular CWSRF loan.
38. (38) Market interest rate--Interest rates comparable to those attained for municipal securities in an open market offering.
39. (39) Municipality--A city, town, county, district, association or other public body created by or pursuant to State law and having jurisdiction over disposal of sewage, municipal and industrial wastes, or other wastes or an approved management agency under the Act.
40. (40) Nonpoint source pollution plan--A plan for managing nonpoint source pollution as described in the Act, §319. Nonpoint source pollution is any source of water pollution that does not enter water from a point source and includes pollution generally resulting from land runoff, precipitation, atmospheric deposition, drainage, seepage or hydrologic modification.
41. (41) Nonpoint source pollution project--A project implemented pursuant to a nonpoint source pollution plan.
42. (42) Permit--Any permit, license, registration and other legal document required from any local, regional, state or federal government for construction of the project.
43. (43) Person--An individual, corporation, partnership, association, State, municipality, commission or political subdivision of the State, or any interstate body.
44. (44) Point source--Any discernible, confined and discrete conveyance, including but not limited to any pipe, ditch, channel, tunnel, conduit, well, discrete fissure, container, rolling stock, concentrated animal feeding operation, or vessel or other floating craft, from which pollutants are or may be discharged. This term does not include agricultural stormwater discharges and return flows from irrigated agriculture.
45. (45) Priority list--The section of the IUP that lists projects ranked according to priority order based on criteria described within the applicable IUP.
46. (46) Private Placement Memorandum--A document functionally similar to an official statement used in connection with an offering of municipal securities in a private placement.
47. (47) Project--The planning, acquisition of land and permits, environmental review, design, construction and other activities designed to improve, extend, rehabilitate and construct wastewater treatment facilities and nonpoint source or national estuary program projects.
48. (48) Project engineer--The engineer retained by the Applicant to provide professional engineering services during any phase of a project.
49. (49) Project information form--The Board form that must be submitted by Applicants invited to apply for funding from the CWSRF.
50. (50) Ready to proceed--A project that has obtained all permits, legally required authorizations, and all land, and has complied with all engineering and environmental planning review requirements and other Board requirements and design is complete.
51. (51) Release--The time at which financial assistance funds are made available to the loan recipient.
52. (52) State--The State of Texas.
53. (53) State depository institution--A state or national bank designated by the comptroller in accordance with the Local Government Code, Chapter 404, Subchapter C, as amended.
54. (54) State funded loans--Financial assistance funded solely from the state funds portion of the CWSRF; also known as non-equivalency or Tier II loans.
55. (55) Subsidy--Any special financial terms and conditions available including loan forgiveness, negative interest rates, grants or other financial incentives as detailed in an IUP.
56. (56) Treatment works--Any devices, facilities and systems that are used in the storage, treatment, recycling, and reclamation of waste or that are necessary to recycle or reuse water at the most economical cost over the estimated life of the works, including intercepting sewers, outfall sewers, sewage collection systems, pumping, power, and other equipment and their appurtenances; extensions, improvements, remodeling, additions, and alterations thereof; elements essential to provide a reliable recycled supply such as standby treatment units and clear well facilities; and any works, including site acquisition of the land that will be an integral part of, or used in connection with, the treatment process (including land used for the storage of treated water in land treatment systems prior to land application) or is used for ultimate disposal of residues resulting from such treatment; or facilities to provide for the collection, control, and disposal of waste. The term also means any other method or system for preventing, abating, reducing, storing, treating, separating, or disposing of municipal waste, including storm water runoff; and waste combined in storm water and sanitary sewer systems, the type of projects that often arise in response to emergency events.
57. (57) Trustee--The person holding the property in trust including an original, additional or successor trustee, whether or not the person is appointed or confirmed by a court.
58. (58) Trust and agency certificate--The instrument executed between the executive administrator and a home-rule municipality with a population of more than 1,000,000 whose charter provides for an elected comptroller, auditor or treasurer governing the management of CWSRF loan and grant proceeds.
59. (59) Trust institution--A bank, credit union, foreign bank, savings association, savings bank or trust company that is authorized by its charter to conduct trust business.
60. (60) Water conservation plan--A report outlining the methods and means by which water conservation may be achieved within a particular facilities planning area.
61. (61) Water conservation program--A comprehensive water conservation program with a schedule and description of the methods and means to be used to implement and enforce a water conservation plan.
62. (62) Water quality management plan--A plan prepared and updated annually by the state and approved by the Environmental Protection Agency that determines the nature, extent, and causes of water quality problems in various areas of the state and identifies cost-effective and locally acceptable facility and nonpoint measures to meet and maintain water quality standards.

Source Note:The provisions of this §375.1 adopted to be effective September 8, 2010, 35 TexReg 8126.