Safe Drinking Water Revolving Loan Fund and the Drinking Water Protection Loan Fund

These loan programs fund drinking water system improvements needed to maintain compliance with the Federal Safe Drinking Water Act.

• The Safe Drinking Water Revolving Loan Fund (SDWRLF) is designed for collection, treatment, distribution and related infrastructure projects.
• The Drinking Water Protection Loan Fund (DWPLF) is designed for the protection of drinking water sources.

The Safe Drinking Water Fund is funded by yearly grants from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and matched with the state Water/Wastewater Financing Program. The program is managed by the Department of Human Services (Drinking Water Program) and the loans are managed by the Oregon Infrastructure Finance Authority (IFA).

Funding is available for all sizes of water systems, although 15 percent of the funds are reserved for systems serving a population of fewer than 10,000.

Who Can Apply?

Owners of water systems that provide service to at least 25 year-round residents or systems that have 15 or more connections (or a nonprofit with 25 or more regular users). Owners can be a nonprofit, private party or municipality, but never federally owned and systems can never be federally operated.

What Can the Money Be Used For?

A funded project must solve an existing or potential health hazard or noncompliance under federal/state water quality standards. The following are the main types of eligible activities:

• Engineering, design, upgrade, construction or installation of system improvements and equipment for water intake, filtration, treatment, storage, transmission
• Acquisitions of property or easements
• Planning, surveys, legal/technical support and environmental review
• Investments to enhance the physical security of drinking water systems, as well as water sources

Money cannot be used for:

• dams;
• water rights;
• administration;
• ongoing operations;
• primarily fire suppression;
• projects that do not directly address (most severe) noncompliance/health risks; and
• future community growth beyond conventional population projections over the life of the project.

Loan Information

SDWRLF loan amount: The program provides up to $6 million per project with the possibility of subsidized interest rate and principal forgiveness for a Disadvantaged Community.

Terms:The standard loan term is 20 years or the useful life of project assets, whichever is less, and may be extended up to 30 years under SDWRLF for a Disadvantaged Community. Interest rates are only 80 percent of state/local bond index rate.

DWPLF loan amount:The maximum loan is $100,000 per project.

How to Apply

Step 1: Letter of Interest.  An owner of a water system must submit a Letter of Interest.

• For the SDWRLF, Letters of Interest are collected on an annual cycle, so that all recently proposed projects can be rated and ranked for purposes of the Intended Use Plan (IUP) provided each year to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA).
• For the DWPLF, Letters of Interest may be submitted at any time; the IFA accepts final applications on a first-come/first-serve basis (subject to eligibility).

The schedule for submitting Letters of Interest and the form are available at the Department of Human Services.

Step 2: Final Application. According to the available funds for the federal fiscal year, the rating and ranking scores create a separate priority list for SDWRLF and DWPLF that determines what projects are allowed to make final application to the IFA.