Priority System

(1) Establishment of Calendar Year Priority List. (a) Prior to the beginning of each calendar year, the Department shall establish a single, annual list of projects prioritized to receive financial assistance pursuant to 310 CMR 44.00. The Department will prioritize projects in the order of their numerical rating, as determined by the Department based on the proponent's responses to questions in the Project Evaluation Form. For the purpose of prioritizing projects financed under the Community Septic Management Program, which has its own legislatively dedicated funding allotment, the Department may distinguish the priority and the funding status of Community Septic Management Program projects from other projects on the priority list. (b) In establishing the priority list, the Department may require Local Governmental Units to submit a Project Evaluation Form containing information deemed necessary by the Department for project evaluation, including but not limited to, information which addresses the proposed project's compliance with the Intended Use Plan Project Listing criteria in 310 CMR 44.03(2) and the Project Selection Criteria in 310 CMR 44.06. The Department may establish a reasonable deadline for its receipt of such information, and may decline to evaluate and prioritize a project if the Department determines that the Local Governmental Unit has failed to provide sufficient information. (c) Prior to adopting the priority list, the Department shall conduct a public hearing to receive and consider public comment on the proposed list. The Department will ensure that notice of the public hearing will be published in one or more newspapers of general circulation 30 days prior to the date of the hearing. (2) Intended Use Plan Project Listing. (a) Eligible projects which the Department finds are ready to proceed and for which funds are available in the calendar year in which the priority list is established shall be placed on the Intended Use Plan Project Listing portion of the priority list. The Department reserves the right to expand the Intended Use Plan Project Listing during the course of the relevant calendar year based on an additional allocation of available funding. (b) The Local Governmental Unit proposing the project must show that its project meets each of the following criteria in order for the Department to place the project on the Intended Use Plan Project Listing: 1. As determined by the Department, the project's environmental, and/or public health benefits, as evidenced by its ranking on the priority list, are sufficiently high to warrant its funding as a priority in the relevant calendar year; 2. As determined by the Department, based on a review of reliable and relevant information, the project's environmental and/or public health benefits outweigh any expected negative impacts to water quality or water quantity or to the public health which are directly attributable to the project; 3. The Local Governmental Unit has already obtained its local funding authorization for the project, or has committed to a specific schedule to obtain such funding authorization by June 30th of the relevant calendar year; and 4. The Local Governmental Unit demonstrates to the Department's satisfaction that its project is sufficiently advanced in its implementation such that the Local Governmental Unit will file a complete loan application with the Department for the project by October 15 of the relevant calendar year. th A complete application includes, as applicable, approvable plans and specifications for the project and evidence that the Local Governmental Unit has, at a minimum, filed applications for any permits or environmental reviews applicable to the project. As provided in 310 CMR 44.12(1)(b), the Department may deny any application which it determines to be incomplete. (c) In the event that a project placed on Intended Use Plan Project Listing fails during the course of the calendar year to meet one or more of the criteria in 310 CMR 44.05(2)(b), the project may be removed from the Intended Use Plan Project Listing. In such event, the Department reserves the right to raise one or more project(s) which are determined by the Department to be of the highest priority and which meet the criteria in 310 CMR 44.05(2)(b), consistent with available funding, to the Intended Use Plan Project Listing. Subject to the availability of funding and the project's priority, the Department further reserves the right to restore any project removed from the Intended Use Plan Project Listing for failure to meet the criteria in 310 CMR 44.05(2)(b) if the project thereafter meets those criteria prior to the end of the relevant calendar year. (d) The implementation of some projects on the Intended Use Plan Project Listing will take place over two years or more. For such multi-year projects, the Department will limit the amount of actual funding reserved for the project on each annual Intended Use Plan Project Listing to the amount needed to fund the project for two years. In the event that a multi-year project receives a project approval certificate from the Department by the end of the relevant calendar year, the Department will reserve another annual increment(s) of funding for the project on subsequent calendar year Intended Use Plan Project Listings, subject to the availability of funding, and provided the project is implemented in accordance with the schedule in the project approval certificate, as determined by the Department. The limitation on financial assistance in 310 CMR 44.05(3) shall apply to any amounts reserved as annual increments of funding for a multi-year project on subsequent calendar year Intended Use Plan Project Listings. (3) Limitation on Financial Assistance. (a) No Local Governmental Unit shall receive Department approval for financial assistance from the Trust for a project or projects in a calendar year in any amount in excess of 33% of the total financial assistance authorized on the Intended Use Plan Project Listing portion of the priority list in that calendar year, including any amounts reserved as annual increments of funding for a multi-year project on subsequent calendar year Intended Use Plan Project Listings. (b) The Department reserves the right to waive the borrower limitation on financial assistance set forth in 310 CMR 44.05(3)(a) if the Department determines that one or more projects on the Intended Use Plan Project Listing portion of the applicable priority list has failed or will fail to meet the criteria in 310 CMR 44.05(2)(b) by October 15 in the relevant th calendar year, or if the Department allocates additional available funding to the Intended Use Plan Project Listing during the course of the relevant calendar year. (c) The Trust reserves the right to call due the unpaid loan balance of any loan and/or other form of financial assistance at the financial equivalent of a loan made at an interest rate at zero per cent if the Local Governmental Unit awarded such loan amends, or suffers the amendment of, any Land Use Control upon which approval of such loan and/or other form of financial assistance was based, unless the Local Governmental Unit demonstrates to the Department's satisfaction that such amended Land Use Controls will ensure that overall wastewater flow in the community will not increase as a result of sewering beyond the flow authorized under the Land Use Controls that were in effect on the date the Secretary issued a MEPA certificate for the CWMP or the date of a 208 Plan.