New Jersey Environmental Infrastructure Financing Program Receives EPA's PISCES Award for Its Innovative Public-Private Lending Program

Denver - On November 5, the New Jersey Environmental Infrastructure Financing Program was presented the Environmental Protection Agency's 2007 PISCES Award (Performance and Innovation in the SRF Creating Environmental Success) for it national leadership in public-private lending. The award ceremony took place at the Council for Infrastructure Financing Authorities' conference in Denver, Colorado.

The New Jersey Environmental Infrastructure Financing Program is a partnership between the New Jersey Environmental Infrastructure Trust and the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection. Together, they have provided private entities over $240 million in low-interest loans to remediate and develop more than 800 acres of land that had thousands of gallons of untreated leachate seeping into surrounding waters daily. New Jersey 's assistance has been instrumental in implementing landfill closures, leachate collection systems, and treatment and conveyance systems. For some projects, the state used conduit financing via an Improvement Authority.

The PISCES Award program was created in 2005 to recognize extraordinary successful States' Clean Water Revolving Fund programs. Projects financed under these programs support the Clean Water Act by protecting environmental health and water quality. The awards highlight successfully designed projects that further the goal of clean and safe water with exceptional planning, management, and financing.

This year, states that have been the most innovative and effective in advancing EPA's goals of performance and protection through the Clean Water State Revolving Fund (SRF) program were recognized. The PISCES Award is given to one state in each of the ten EPA regions.

The ten state SRF programs were nominated by EPA's regional offices based upon the following criteria:

1. Pace level greater than 80 percent,
2. Audit with no serious programmatic or financial problems,
3. Outstanding performance in at least two of the following areas:
   . Better management practices
   . Full-cost pricing
   . Efficient water use
   . Watershed approach
   . Creative use of technologies
   . Leveraging practices
   . Innovative partnerships
   . Innovative lending practices
   . Effective outreach

EPA's judging assesses performance, integrity, and creativity in SRF programs.