U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of Water issued Build America Buy America (BABA) guidance to require all water and wastewater infrastructure projects financed in whole or part with federal assistance, like the State Revolving Loan Fund (SRF), to procure U.S. manufactured products. The mandate requires Buy America compliance for the entire project; not the federally assisted portion of a project.
Administration Seeking Information: Under BABA, a project recipient is solely responsible for compliance. If the sourcing of U.S. manufactured products cannot be secured or costs increase more than 25%, a project recipient must seek a waiver from US EPA working through the state SRF agency. Discussions were recently held with Administration officials on the challenges of complying with BABA and how it jeopardizes the timely use of the historic Bipartisan Infrastructure Law’s funding. These officials requested information that details the lack of a reliable supply of critical water infrastructure products manufactured in the U.S. This request for information could be used to fashion an extended compliance deadline for project recipients that would, in turn, expedite SRF project construction.
The Ask: Please provide by January 20, 2023, an identification of the priority manufactured products (e.g., pumps, mixers, membranes, ozonation, and other products) that you believe:
- would not be domestically available in reasonable quality or quantity and therefore could lead to construction delays of SRF water infrastructure; or
- although domestically available in reasonable quality or quantity would impose significant project cost increases.
The requested information can be submitted in any format you wish. We only request that you identify the kinds of products that will (or anticipate) necessitate a waiver request from the mandate, defer seeking federal SRF assistance, or delay project construction.