Water Wastewater Emergency ACT: WWATERS Program Eligibility and Evaluation Criteria Amended
Summary
Kentucky Governor signed HB651, amending KRS 224A.320 to revise the Kentucky Water and Wastewater Assistance for Troubled or Economically Restrained Systems (WWATERS) Program. The bill raises eligibility from meeting 1 criterion to 3 or more, excludes service-expansion projects, requires detailed budgets and professional engineer attestation, removes two financial ratio criteria, removes the past-year violation notice requirement, and adds new evaluation criteria including prior phase funding, comparable project costs, and projects restoring safe water or wastewater service. The act is declared an emergency.
“require that a funding application include a detailed budget for all proposed project expenses;”
What changed
HB651 substantially tightens eligibility for the Kentucky WWATERS Program by raising the threshold from 1 to 3 qualifying criteria and explicitly excluding projects that expand utility service. It removes two financial ratio criteria (accounts payable turnover and days' sales in accounts receivable) and the past-year violation notice requirement from the evaluation framework. The bill adds four new evaluation criteria: stormwater inflow and groundwater infiltration impairment, prior phase funding, comparable estimated-to-actual costs, and professional engineer attestation. The board must now score and rank all eligible projects individually, with added weight for projects providing or restoring safe water or wastewater service.
Water and wastewater utilities seeking WWATERS funding must now meet a higher eligibility bar and should prepare detailed project budgets with professional engineer attestation. Utilities with service-expansion projects are ineligible. The emergency declaration means the amendments take effect immediately upon signature, requiring prompt updates to program applications and procedures.
Archived snapshot
Apr 22, 2026GovPing captured this document from the original source. If the source has since changed or been removed, this is the text as it existed at that time.
ChangeBridge / Kentucky / HB651 Signed by Governor HB651 House Bill Signed by Governor 2026-04-13
AN ACT relating to public water and wastewater systems and declaring an emergency.
Amend KRS 224A.320 to require that eligible funding recipients for the Kentucky Water and Wastewater Assistance for Troubled or Economically Restrained Systems (WWATERS) Program meet 3 or more of the specified eligibility criteria instead of 1; exclude projects that expand the utility service of funding applicants from the definition of "eligible project"; require that a funding application include a detailed budget for all proposed project expenses; allow the Kentucky Infrastructure Authority board to evaluate and score funding applications for proposed projects in phases; require that approved eligible funding recipients adopt best management practices that would address the performance deficiencies that made the applicant eligible for funding; remove the funding evaluation criteria categories of current accounts payable turnover ratio and current days' sales in accounts receivable ratio; remove the requirement from the evaluation criteria that the applicant's receipt of a notice of violation of drinking water or other water quality standards occur in the past year; add to the funding eligibility criteria that the funding applicant can demonstrate that the amount of stormwater inflow and groundwater infiltration entering the funding applicant's system seriously impairs its effectiveness; add to the funding evaluation criteria that the funding applicant previously received funding through the program for a prior phase of the proposed project; add to the funding evaluation criteria that the funding applicant can demonstrate that the estimated costs are comparable to actual costs incurred for similar projects; add to the funding evaluation criteria that a licensed professional engineer signed an attestation of the application's veracity; require that in the evaluation of the funding applications, the board separately score and individually rank all eligible projects, with additional consideration given to projects that provide or restore safe water or wastewater utility service; EMERGENCY.
Bill Details
State Kentucky
Session 2026 Regular Session
Chamber House
Official Source apps.legislature.ky.gov/record/26RS/hb651....
LegiScan View on LegiScan
Sponsors
Josh Bray (Rep - R) Jason Petrie (Rep - R)
Action History
2026-04-13 H signed by Governor 2026-04-01 H delivered to Governor 2026-04-01 H enrolled, signed by President of the Senate 2026-04-01 H enrolled, signed by Speaker of the House 2026-03-31 H passed 93-0 2026-03-31 H House concurred in Committee Substitute (1) 2026-03-31 H posted for passage for concurrence in Senate Committee Substitute (1) 2026-03-31 H to Rules (H) 2026-03-31 H received in House 2026-03-31 S 3rd reading, passed 38-0 with Committee Substitute (1) 2026-03-31 S posted for passage in the Consent Orders of the Day for Tuesday, March 31 2026 2026-03-31 S reported favorably, to Rules with Committee Substitute (1) as a consent bill 2026-03-26 S returned to Appropriations & Revenue (S) 2026-03-26 S 2nd reading 2026-03-26 S taken from Appropriations & Revenue (S) 2026-03-25 S returned to Appropriations & Revenue (S) 2026-03-25 S 1st reading 2026-03-25 S taken from Appropriations & Revenue (S) 2026-03-06 S to Appropriations & Revenue (S) 2026-03-04 S to Committee on Committees (S) 2026-03-04 S received in Senate 2026-03-03 H 3rd reading, passed 98-0 with Committee Substitute (1) 2026-03-03 H placed in the Orders of the Day 2026-03-03 H taken from Rules 2026-03-03 H reported favorably, to Rules with Committee Substitute (1) 2026-03-02 H returned to Appropriations & Revenue (H) 2026-03-02 H 2nd reading 2026-03-02 H taken from Appropriations & Revenue (H) 2026-02-27 H reassigned to Appropriations & Revenue (H) 2026-02-27 H returned to Natural Resources & Energy (H) 2026-02-27 H 1st reading 2026-02-27 H taken from Natural Resources & Energy (H) 2026-02-24 H to Natural Resources & Energy (H) 2026-02-17 H to Committee on Committees (H) 2026-02-17 H introduced in House
Votes
2026-03-03 House: Veto Override RCS# 182 Yea: 98 Nay: 0 2026-03-31 Senate: Third Reading RSN# 4059 Yea: 38 Nay: 0 2026-03-31 House: Veto Override RCS# 399 Yea: 93 Nay: 0
Committee Referrals
2026-02-17 H Committee On Committees 2026-02-24 H Natural Resources & Energy 2026-02-27 H Appropriations and Revenue 2026-03-04 S Committee on Committees 2026-03-06 S Appropriations and Revenue 2026-03-31 H Rules
Amendments
0000-00-00 House Committee Substitute 0000-00-00 House Committee Substitute 0000-00-00 Senate Committee Substitute
Bill Text Versions
0000-00-00 Introduced 0000-00-00 Engrossed 0000-00-00 Enrolled
Subjects
Boards and Commissions Effective Dates, Emergency Engineers and Surveyors Public Utilities Public Works Sewer Systems Water Supply Legislative data powered by LegiScan (CC BY 4.0)
Named provisions
Related changes
Get daily alerts for Kentucky Legislative Events
Daily digest delivered to your inbox.
Free. Unsubscribe anytime.
About this page
Every important government, regulator, and court update from around the world. One place. Real-time. Free. Our mission
Source document text, dates, docket IDs, and authority are extracted directly from KY Legislature.
The summary, classification, recommended actions, deadlines, and penalty information are AI-generated from the original text and may contain errors. Always verify against the source document.
Classification
Who this affects
Taxonomy
Browse Categories
Get alerts for this source
We'll email you when Kentucky Legislative Events publishes new changes.
Subscribed!
Optional. Filters your digest to exactly the updates that matter to you.