Successes of SRFs Touted at CIFA Federal Policy Conference
The resounding successes of both the Drinking Water State Revolving Fund (DWSRF) and the Clean Water State Revolving Fund (CWSRF) was touted by EPA leadership at the Federal Policy Conference of the Council of Infrastructure Financing Authorities. Over 13,000 DWSRF have funded over $32.5 billion of infrastructure improvements, according to Peter Grevatt of OGWDW. Peter relayed the good news that Unliquidated Obligations (ULOs) have gone down from around $3 billion in FY ’12 to around $500 million in FY ’17. The next Drinking Water Needs Survey is currently going through inter-Agency review and should be released soon, but the total funding needs will be higher in the new report according to Peter.
On the wastewater side, Andrew Sawyers of OWM mentioned that the first round of funding for the Water Infrastructure Financing and Innovation Authority (WIFIA) was over-subscribed but didn’t provide any details. Several projects that submitted Letters of Interest by the April 10th deadline are looking for co-funding with the SRFs. Andrew talked how to create sustainable revenue models as the capitalization grants may not continue in perpetuity. According to Andrew, the CWSRF funded 1,360 projects in FY ’16 with a value of over $7.6 billion, and the average interest rate was 1.6%.
2017 marks 20th anniversary of the DWSRF and the 30th anniversary of the CWSRF. CIFA and EPA are sponsoring a 30+20 event at the CIFA Fall Meeting in October. ASDWA is sponsoring a Congressional Briefing on Friday, May 5th as part of the 20th anniversary of the DWSRF that will provide both a broad overview on the DWSRF as well as details on the first DWSRF loan. The first DWSRF loan from Pennvest was closed in May 1997 and was paid back on March 1, 2017.
