Drinking Water State Revolving Fund Dwsrf

Each state and the District of Columbia must receive at least 1% of available funds, and as much as 0.33% of the total appropriation must be made available for grants to the Virgin Islands, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, American Samoa, and Guam. [...] States also have the option of using as much as 15% for a combination of the following: loans for the acquisition of land or conservation easements; loans to implement voluntary source water protection measures; technical and financial assistance to systems as part of a capacity development strategy; and development and implementation of ground water protection programs. [...] Congress gave states flexibility to set priorities between the SDWA and Clean Water Act SRF programs to accommodate the divergent drinking water and wastewater needs and priorities among the states. [...] The law authorized states to transfer as much as 33% of the annual DWSRF allotment to the CWSRF or an equivalent amount from the CWSRF to the DWSRF. [...] EPA is required to distribute the DWSRF funds to the states based on the results of the latest needs survey.

In the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) Amendments of 1996 (P.L. 104-182), Congress authorized a drinking water state revolving loan fund (DWSRF) program to help public water systems finance infrastructure projects needed to comply with federal drinking water regulations and to protect public health. Under the program, states receive capitalization grants to make loans to water systems for drinking water projects and certain other SDWA activities. Since the program was first funded in FY1997, Congress has provided $7.8 billion, including roughly $844 million for FY2005. The President has requested $850 million for FY2006. Through June 2004, the DWSRF program had provided $7.9 billion in assistance and had supported 6,500 projects. The Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA's) 2001 survey of capital improvement needs for public water systems found that these systems need to invest $150.9 billion on infrastructure improvements over 20 years to ensure the provision of safe water. Several new standards and security concerns have increased these needs. Key issues include the gap between estimated needs and funding; SDWA compliance costs, particularly for small systems; and the broader need for cities to improve their water infrastructure, apart from SDWA compliance. This report will be updated.