EPA extends agreement one month to finish approval of new one

The Environmental Protection Agency has extended for one month the cooperative agreement that funds the Lincoln County Asbestos Resource Program as the application for a new agreement winds its way through the approval process.

As the current agreement’s July 31 expiration date approached, the EPA “hadn’t quite finished all of the approval process, so they asked if we would mind if they extended the existing cooperative agreement one more month” to Aug. 31, said Asbestos Resource Program Manager Nick Raines.

“According to the folks I talked to there are no concerns or issues,” Raines said. “They’ve already kind of agreed to everything in the application, it’s just going through the full process within the EPA to get it approved and all set up.”

Raines said while the existing agreement is between the EPA and the City-County Board of Health, with Lincoln County providing all support through an activity support agreement, the new agreement will be directly between the EPA and Lincoln County.

The cooperative agreement includes a reimbursable grant that funds the Asbestos Resource Program.

“It’s how almost all our federal grants are administered,” Raines said. “So there’s a little bit of burden on the county to continue to carry it until that reimbursement is received.”

The program’s expenditures “vary quite a bit month-to-month” Raines said, ranging from an average of $20,000 to $30,000 a month.

Raines said he confirmed with the EPA that the extension won’t affect the reimbursement of allowable expenses incurred during the extension period.