December 16 Briefing on the EPA Buy American Process for ARRA Projects

The ACEC/MA Environmental Affairs Committee held a briefing for ACEC/MA & BSCES Members about the EPA Buy American Waiver process for water and waste water projects that would be funded through economic stimulus funding (ARRA funding) on Wednesday, December 16 at The Engineering Center. 

David Chin and Katie Connors from EPA Regional 1 provided information on the waiver process.

Background:  A contractor for each ARRA-funded SRF project will potentially need to complete 50-100 waivers for products and materials that would be used in the construction of water and waste water facilities, due to the limited availability of American-made products for much of this work, as well as the unknown country of origin of many of the products.  EPA estimates that each waiver will take 4-6 weeks for approval.  This volume of waiver requests could potentially cause construction delays and construction change orders that were not anticipated under the ARRA program. 

This briefing explained the waiver process and ways in which it could be streamlined to keep your projects moving.

Links to some materials for this briefing:

Presentation in Powerpoint Format

Presentation in PDF 

EPA Buy American Waiver Process Timeline

BA Waiver Process

Substantial Transformation Memo

Questions and Answers Part 1

Questions and Answers Part 2

Approved Regional Waivers  Note:  this particular file is a snapshot in time as of 12-15-09, please check with the EPA for updates

Waiver List Note:  this particular file is a snapshot in time as of 12-15-09, please check with the EPA for updates