SRF “Additional Subsidy” and Household Affordability

State Revolving Fund “Additional Subsidy” and Household Affordability

Federal spending on local water infrastructure represents a tiny fraction of total spending across federal, state, and local governments. Nevertheless, there are various buckets of financial support available from the U.S. government, including through State Revolving Fund (SRF) programs, in the form of grants, below-market rate loans, principal forgiveness, other “additional subsidy,” and more, to help communities defray the cost of local water infrastructure and, in some cases, specifically to support household water affordability. This memo provides a brief overview of the structure of the SRFs, focusing on their “additional subsidization” provisions, and how these programs can provide direct benefits to households facing affordability challenges. As described below, the legal landscape is somewhat complex as the Clean Water Act and the Safe Drinking Water Act direct EPA and the states to implement the additional subsidy provisions somewhat differently, although both have the same intention; to ameliorate the burden of rate increases on lower income customers.

Click the link below to download the memo.

Enabling Large-Scale Non-Functional Turf Transformations

Enabling Large-Scale Transformation of Non-Essential Turf in Colorado Communities

The primary objectives of this multiyear project were to enable large-scale turf replacement projects that may have otherwise faced economic or other barriers to implementation.

Through a multifaceted approach, the project team:

Partnered with three Colorado communities (Broomfield, Greeley, and Westminster) to develop and design turf replacement pilot projects, estimate water and cost savings based on replacement landscaping scenarios, and conduct community-wide assessments to analyze broader water savings and economic benefits of turf replacement projects.

Developed a variety of publicly available reports and resources to assist communities considering or implementing turf replacement and waterwise landscaping initiatives in Colorado and beyond.

Advancing Water Affordability Nationwide: A Framework for Action

Advancing Water Affordability Nationwide: A Framework for Action

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Environmental Finance Advisory Board developed this report in response to a five-part EFAB charge related to the affordability of water, sewer, and stormwater services.

The elements of EFAB’s affordability framework are as follows:

1. Capital Investments: The amount a customer pays for water services is driven by utility investments in infrastructure - what they build and how they build it. This report discusses infrastructure and project delivery alternatives that can provide meaningful cost savings over the long term.
2. Operational Efficiency: Numerous resources have been developed to support utilities seeking to maximize operational efficiencies, thereby limiting costs and ratepayer burdens.
3. Federal Financial Support: The federal government, and some states, offer various financial support options for local water capital investment, including grants, below-market-rate loans, principal forgiveness, other “additional subsidies,” and more.
4. Rate Structures and Design: Many water service providers have options for creating more equitable rate structures that can reduce financial burdens for low-income customers within current legal and regulatory parameters.
5. Customer Assistance Programs: There are households in every community unable to pay for essential water services, either chronically or in response to unexpected crises. CAPs can provide bill assistance directly to these customers through bill discounts, water use efficiency programs, payment management plans, and other methods.

Click the link below to download the full report.

Protecting Source Water with Drinking Water SRF

Protecting Source Water with the Drinking Water State Revolving Fund Set-Asides

This EPA fact sheet highlights the ways Drinking Water State Revolving Funds can be used to finance investments in projects designed to protect drinking water sources. As EPA explains that amendments made to the Drinking Water SRF program in 2018 expanded project eligibility to include source water protection activities, and highlights case studies from Nebraska, Delaware, Maine, and Washington.

Click the link below to read the full fact sheet.

Source Water Protection in Arizona

Source Watershed Protection in Arizona

In this February 2022 presentation, the Water Infrastructure Finance Authority of Arizona provides an overview of the source watershed protection activities that can be financed by the State Revolving Fund, how SRF loans for watershed projects might be repaid, and highlights Flagstaff's forest thinning and watershed management as a case study on an SRF financed project.

Click the link below to download the presentation slides.

Protecting Source Water with the CWSRF

Protecting Source Water with the Clean Water State Revolving Fund

This EPA fact sheet highlights the ways Clean Water State Revolving Funds can be used to finance investments in projects designed to protect drinking water sources. As EPA explains, "CWSRF financing is available to public, private, or nonprofit entities for many types of source water protection (SWP) projects, including both green and grey infrastructure water quality solutions for both surface water and groundwater."

Click the link below to read the full fact sheet.

CWSRF Forest Thinning and Restoration Program

The Arizona CWSRF Forest Thinning and Restoration Program

This Arizona Water Infrastructure Authority of Arizona report details the City of Flagstaff's Watershed Protection Project that is funded in part by Arizona's Clean Water State Revolving Fund program. The Watershed Protection Project was created in response to the 2010 the Schultz Fire that burned more than 15,000 acres of steep, forested slopes of the Coconino National Forest surrounding Flagstaff.

Rains after the fire gave way to catastrophic flooding, taking the life of a child, destroying neighborhoods, businesses, local water supply resources, and rendering a once thriving recreational resource to ash. To mitigate and avoid such impacts in the future, the city spent the next ten years building the Flagstaff Watershed Protection Project to undertake preventive forest management through forest thinning.

Click the link below to download the full report.

Lake Michigan Dashboard: Valuing Benefits Framework

Framework for Valuing the Economic Benefits of Nature-Based Stormwater Resilience Projects

This guidance provides a framework and methods for quantifying and valuing the multiple benefits of nature-based solutions, focusing specifically on green stormwater infrastructure (GSI) and coastal resilience projects that improve water quality and/or help to reduce localized or coastal flooding.

The framework is organized in three sections:

1. Section 1 provides an overview of GSI and nature-based resilience projects, describes the importance of understanding the benefits of these projects, and introduces common benefit valuation approaches.
2. Section 2 describes the key steps in conducting an economic analysis of the benefits and costs of nature-based resilience projects
3. Section 3 provides more specific guidance and methods for valuing key benefits, including flood risk reduction, water quality improvements, enhanced recreational opportunities, habitat and biodiversity, carbon reduction, and economic development.

Click the link below to download the framework. Check out the Lake Michigan Dashboard Step 3 - Valuing Multiple Benefits to access an online version of the framework.

 

Principles and Guidelines for Wetland Restoration

This resource covers the principles and guidelines, established in the adoption of Resolution VIII.16 (2002) of the Ramsar Convention.

Restoring Large Woody Debris to Streams

Large woody debris (LWD) is an important structural and functional component of stream ecosystems, and can consist of a wide range of types and sizes including logs, coarse roots, and smaller branches. LWD can result in the rapid dissipation of stream energy in high gradient systems. To maintain a continuous addition of LWD to streams in the future, healthy riparian zones should be maintained along stream ecosystems. The best long-term and least costly method of restoring stream habitat is through an aggressive riparian management policy that provides a buffer strip capable of continuously supplying optimum numbers of all sizes of large woody debris essential for healthy fish habitats.

Download below to read more.