How does EPA prioritize reimbursement requests?
Once EPA reviews an application and determines that it is complete and complies with all of the regulatory requirements, EPA calculates the applicant’s financial burden. A local government’s financial burden is determined by comparing the eligible response costs to the locality’s aggregate income (i.e., the per capita income of the locality multiplied by the locality’s population). The purpose of this requirement is to provide financial relief to local governments that face significant financial burden as a result of responding to a hazardous substance incident. In the event that the amount of funds available for reimbursement becomes limited, the financial burden formula gives priority to those local governments for which the response costs create the greatest financial burden. Because the funding ceiling for the LGR program has not yet been reached in a given year, EPA has yet to use financial burden to prioritize reimbursements and has reimbursed all eligible applications to date. I
