NGWA joined a coalition to support the full funding of the Drinking Water and Clean Water State Revolving Funds (SRFs), taking part along with 17 state water agencies and 19 other national and regional water associations.
The State Revolving Fund programs are a federal-state partnership that provides low-cost financing to communities for a wide range of water supply and quality infrastructure projects. Congress has diverted $3.65 billion in federal funding from SRFs since 2022 to pay for congressional earmarks.
Supplemental funding in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) mitigated the impact of these cuts affecting financing used by utilities, but only temporarily.
The one-time funding in the IIJA runs out in two years, leaving utilities with limited access to affordable financing to rehabilitate, replace and modernize aging infrastructure. Most systems supported by the Drinking Water SRF are small groundwater-supplied systems.
The Drinking Water State Revolving Funds (DWSRF) provide financing for improving drinking water treatment, fixing leaky or old pipes (water distribution), improving source of water supply, replacing or constructing finished water storage tanks, and other infrastructure projects needed to protect public health, including grants for wellhead protection.
The Clean Water State Revolving Funds (CWSRF) finance projects including municipal wastewater facilities, nonpoint source pollution control, decentralized wastewater treatment systems, stormwater runoff mitigation, green infrastructure, estuary protection, and water reuse.
Both State Revolving Funds can support managed aquifer recharge, treatment, and wells needed to inject and recover the stored water in aquifers.
About 690 of the recipients of DWSRF loan agreements and nearly 16,000 small systems receiving technical assistance grants in 2022 were groundwater supplied.
Click here to learn more about SRFs.