Louisiana Streamlining

The Louisiana Water and Wastewater Joint Funding Committee (LWWJFC) is an inter agency committee that consists of federal and state agencies that offer financial assistance for water and wastewater projects. The member agencies are similar to many of the statewide support groups. Its purpose is to better serve customers by coordinating information between funding agencies to ensure available funding would be utilized by communities in need and eliminating duplicate work among these agencies by standardizing documents as much as possible.

The LWWJF successfully created a single Letter of Intent application, which could be used by all funding agencies. Additionally, these funding agencies aided in the streamlining process by overlaying environmental clearance requirements to allow a single determination to be utilized by any/all funding agencies. This action paved the way for allowing multiple funding agencies to participate in joint funding of a project while sharing the same environmental clearance. Currently, the LWWJFC holds quarterly meetings to discuss any Intent to File applications as well as determine which agency is funding or co-funding any given project.

La DEQ Regulations Update

Starting in 2010, the LA CWSRF program participated in a state regulation re-write with the goal of streamlining the program requirements. Several program bottlenecks were minimized or eliminated. Some of these bottleneck improvements included eliminating duplicate forms or actions, aligning the program requirements with updated federal requirements, removing outdated procedures, and simplifying the environmental clearance procedures. Additionally, the priority scoring was simplified and merged with department goals.

CWSRF Streamlining

Since the regulation update, the LA CWSRF program also has made the priority scoring automated in the database, updated several SOPs, improved process flows, created a standardized payment request template, and even updated the database to an online system. The department recently updated a policy to review and update SOPs, as necessary, every two years. By reviewing the SOPs every two years, even small changes can be captured along with any new or improved process. Speaking of processes, there are numerous process flow improvements that have been completed over the last few years. Some of these improvements are due to technology, like uniform submittal to our electronic document management system (EDMS), updating our website with current forms, requirements, references, etc., and requiring payment submittals through an SRF group email so that all staff are notified at the same time. Other process improvements have to do with updated requirements, reporting, and record keeping.

Additionally, the SRF management has recently instituted additional triggers to keep projects on schedule. For instance, when committing to projects, there is now a kick off meeting to go over all requirements and necessary approvals that are needed. Another new addition includes time frames or deadlines placed on certain action items, such as being able to close the loan within one year from commitment and keeping track of projected project completion dates.

Finally, moving the SRF database to the online platform has allowed the program to keep up with ever changing technology as well as the coronavirus pandemic, which has forced the CWSRF program to do more work remotely. The addition of allowing electronic signatures and online reviews, comments, and corrections have allowed the SRF staff to process items more quickly. These enhancements will likely influence more improvements in the near future like an online application.

For questions or more information, please e-mail Scott Templet at
scott.templet@la.gov or call him at 225.219.3463