The federal Water Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act (WIFIA) program received $68 million in funding through the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2019, a $5 million increase in the program’s funding from last year. With increased appropriations, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) has announced an estimated $6 billion in loan funding is available in 2019.
WIFIA loans are available to public and private borrowers for a wide range of water related projects. “This new round of WIFIA funding provides up to $6 billion in credit assistance which, combined with other sources, could support $12 billion in water infrastructure projects and create more than 180,000 jobs. For this round, we are prioritizing construction-ready projects in three areas: water reuse and recycling, reducing exposure to lead and addressing emerging contaminants, and updating aging infrastructure,” said Andrew Wheeler, USEPA Administrator.
The USEPA will accept letters of interest (LOI) from prospective borrowers via the Federal Register through July 5, 2019. The USEPA will evaluate proposed projects described in the LOIs using WIFIA’s statutory and regulatory criteria as described in the Notice of Funding Availability (NOFA). Through this competitive process, USEPA says it will select projects that it intends to fund and invite them to continue the application process. For more information about WIFIA, visit the USEPA WIFIA webpage.