Clean Water State Revolving Fund
On this page:
- Background
- Eligibility
- Available Technical Assistance
- Connections to Other EPA, Federal or Non-Governmental Efforts
Background
The Clean Water State Revolving Fund Program is a federal-state partnership that provides low-cost financing to communities for a wide range of water quality infrastructure projects, including municipal wastewater facilities, nonpoint source pollution control, decentralized wastewater treatment systems, stormwater runoff mitigation, green infrastructure, estuary protection and water reuse. Under CWSRF, the EPA provides grants to all 50 states and Puerto Rico to capitalize state CWSRF loan programs. States contribute an additional 20% to match the federal grants.
The 51 CWSRF programs function like environmental banks by providing low interest loans to eligible recipients for a wide variety of water sector protection and restoration projects. Repayments are then recycled back into the fund to finance additional projects for high priority water quality activities.
Incorporating resilience into clean water infrastructure projects is a standard practice to support sustainable systems that meet public health and water quality goals. States have the flexibility to target financial resources to their specific community and environmental needs, including those related to climate adaptation and resilience of a given project and surrounding communities. In addition to low- or no-interest loans through the program, some additional subsidies (e.g., principal forgiveness, negative interest rate loans and grants) may be available to encourage resilience-building projects. Priority-setting systems are an effective tool that states use to encourage resilient wastewater and stormwater infrastructure. Each CWSRF program has a unique priority-setting system that evaluates and ranks projects. Ranking criteria primarily focus on public health and water quality but can also address other concerns, such as infrastructure resilience. States may encourage more projects that promote system resilience through targeted ranking criteria (e.g., offering priority points) and funding incentives (e.g., reduced interest rates and/or waiving fees).
Eligibility
Who is generally eligible to apply?
Eligible entities include communities, private entities, nonprofit organizations, utilities, municipalities, state agencies, homeowners, farmers and citizen groups, with some variation by state and project type.
States may customize loan terms to meet the needs of small and disadvantaged communities or to provide incentives for certain project types. With passage of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, Congress authorized the CWSRF programs to provide further financial assistance through additional subsidization, such as grants, principal forgiveness and negative interest rate loans.
CWSRF assistance is provided directly from state agencies. Contact the CWSRF program in your state to learn more about their specific funding opportunities.
How can projects funded by this program incorporate adaptation and resilience considerations?
The CWSRFs provide assistance for a wide range of activities that can help communities become more resilient to natural disasters and extreme weather events. Twelve project types are eligible to receive CWSRF assistance, including:
- Construction of publicly owned treatment works.
- Nonpoint source pollution control.
- EPA National Estuary Program projects.
- Decentralized wastewater treatment systems.
- Stormwater management.
- Water conservation and efficiency.
- Watershed pilot projects.
- Energy efficiency.
- Water reuse.
- Security measures at publicly owned treatment works.
- Technical assistance.
Various resilience features related to energy and water efficiency upgrades, stormwater management, agricultural conservation practices and green infrastructure are often incorporated into a larger project that can strengthen and protect traditional water infrastructure. In 2009, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act created the Green Project Reserve, requiring that all CWSRF programs use a portion of their federal grant for projects that target critical green infrastructure, water and energy efficiency improvements, and other environmentally innovative activities.
Examples of climate adaptation and resilience projects supported by this program include:
- Preventing interruption of collection system operations in the event of a flood or natural disaster.
- Preserving, protecting and maintaining the operation of a treatment works and the integrity of the treatment train in the event of a flood or natural disaster (e.g., installing floodwater pumping systems, backup generators, or storage tanks).
- Enhancing community resilience through stormwater management using both green and grey infrastructure in the event of a flood (e.g., installing infrastructure that protects the treatment works from flooding and other systems capable of mitigating a storm surge such as tidal wetlands and living shorelines).
- Securing and conserving local water supplies through water reuse and conservation in the event of a drought (e.g., recycling wastewater and stormwater, using water efficient appliances).
- Source water for most water reuse projects is municipal wastewater, which is less impacted by variations in local climate. Therefore, it can provide a reliable, local source of water that can enhance resilience and mitigate the impacts of drought on a community.
- Increasing storage capacity in combined or separate sanitary sewer systems to mitigate the impacts of increased precipitation and storm intensity (e.g., building combined sewer overflow tunnels or other storage infrastructure).
- Encouraging climate-smart agriculture (e.g., riparian forest buffers) to help farmers adapt to and mitigate climate change.
- Reducing water quality impairment from runoff, sedimentation and mudslides caused by wildfire through improved forest management activities (e.g., forest thinning).
For more information on the CWSRF resilient infrastructure projects, please see the EPA’s Activity Report on Funding Resilient Infrastructure and Communities with the CWSRF. To learn how states are using CWSRF funds to advance their climate adaptation and resilience goals, see the CWSRF fact sheets, For more information on project eligibility of the program, see the EPA’s Overview of Clean Water State.
Available Technical Assistance
State programs may provide technical assistance to assess a treatment works’ vulnerability to extreme weather or analyze the best approach to integrate system and community resilience priorities, as long as the work is reasonably expected to result in a capital project. Examples include water or energy audits, asset management plans and drought management plans. These efforts can help analyze infrastructure needs and can result in a pipeline of sustainable projects that are eligible for CWSRF funding.
In addition, the EPA’s free Water Technical Assistance services help communities identify water challenges, develop plans and build technical, managerial and financial capacity. WaterTA can also help prepare and develop application materials for financing a project through federal funding sources such as the CWSRF. View past WaterTA webinars and presentations. A list of existing EPA WaterTA programs can also be found on the WaterTA Program website.
Connections to Other EPA, Federal or Non-Governmental Efforts
The CWSRF program’s reach and benefits can be expanded through co-funding opportunities with other federal, state and private sources. Support offered by the CWSRF can be used in combination with resources offered through other programs to advance climate resilience projects, such as:
- Drinking Water State Revolving Fund and Water Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act: The DWSRF and WIFIA programs can support a variety of climate resilience projects. For example, both the CWSRF and DWSRF programs can finance source water protection and green infrastructure activities. WIFIA can also fund any project eligible for funding under both SRF programs. Combining funding sources allows project proponents access to funding for larger scale projects. For more information, please see Protecting Source Water with the Clean Water and Drinking Water State Revolving Funds.
- EPA's Water Infrastructure and Resiliency Finance Center: Visit the Water Infrastructure and Resiliency Finance Center website to explore other federal sources of funding that can supplement CWSRF projects.
- Memorandum of Understanding Between the EPA and the Department of Homeland Security: The EPA and the Federal Emergency Management Agency have an MOU that establishes a framework for SRF programs to assist and collaborate with FEMA disaster assistance grant programs. The SRFs work cooperatively with FEMA and state, local, Tribal and territorial governments to allow local entities to quickly recover and restore their vital infrastructure after a presidentially declared disaster. Under the MOU, the SRFs can quickly provide an interim loan to a community to help pay for immediate restoration while they wait for a FEMA Public Assistance Grant. The SRFs can also act as cost-sharing financing sources for the potential recipient applying for FEMA disaster assistance grant funding. The proposed activities in the MOU streamline coordination between the SRFs and FEMA, enabling funding to be available as quickly as possible to support essential infrastructure projects and increase resilience to future disasters.
- In addition, FEMA’s hazard mitigation assistance programs are available for eligible water and wastewater utilities to prevent damage to utilities. SRFs can be used as the non-federal cost share for these programs.
To explore opportunities to combine SRF funding with FEMA and other federal sources of funding, see EPA’s Federal Funding for Water and Wastewater Utilities in National Disasters (Fed FUNDS).