Programmatic Financing Options for Funding Watershed Projects with the Clean Water State Revolving Fund

摘要

Over the last 30 years, the United States (U.S.) Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) Clean Water State Revolving Fund (CWSRF) has provided approximately $126 billion in low-cost loans to eligible recipients in 50 states and Puerto Rico for water infrastructure projects. This program is a powerful partnership where the states have the flexibility to fund a wide range of projects. Wastewater utilities frequently use the CWSRF for their project financing needs because they often need additional capital improvements projects for their service area. Traditionally, these projects would receive financing through a loan agreement for each individual project, but there also exists a streamlined approach to finance multiple projects in one collective application. With the CWSRF's flexibility and large lending capacity, it is possible to group multiple eligible projects into one loan agreement that can provide the needed resources for the series of projects to be constructed simultaneously. Programmatic financing is a more efficient use of a borrower's time and money because it eliminates the need for multiple loan applications and projects can begin when they are ready to proceed rather than waiting for financing. Programmatic financing can be used to finance both capital improvement plans as well as groups of projects intended to address watershed scale priorities.