The Division of Water Infrastructure is accepting comments on the draft Intended Use Plans, including Priority Rating Systems, for the Drinking Water State Revolving Fund and Clean Water State Revolving Fund, and the Priority Rating System for the Community Development Block Grant-Infrastructure Program until June 15, 2022.
The Division and the State Water Infrastructure Authority use priority rating systems for projects seeking funding through these programs. These priority rating systems are being considered by the Authority for use in ranking applications for project funding.
The Intended Use Plans (IUPs) for the Clean Water State Revolving Fund (CWSRF) and Drinking Water State Revolving Fund (DWSRF) programs provide details on administration of the Fiscal Year 2022 Federal Capitalization Grants for the State Revolving Funds, including supplemental funding from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL). The SRF program offers low-interest loans (with principal forgiveness) for water infrastructure, including water and wastewater treatment facilities, wastewater collection systems, water distribution systems, reclaimed water facilities, energy efficiency upgrades, stormwater control measures and stream restoration projects.
Three plans or priority rating systems are available for public comment:
- The Drinking Water SRF IUP and Priority Rating System for drinking water infrastructure projects: Draft 2022 DWSRF & BIL Supplemental DWSRF IUP .
- The Clean Water SRF IUP and Priority Rating System for clean water infrastructure projects: Draft 2022 CWSRF & BIL Supplemental CWSRF IUP.
- The Community Development Block Grant-Infrastructure Program Priority Rating System is used to develop scores for evaluating applications: CDBG-I Draft Priority Rating System.
The proposed rating systems prioritize assistance to community applicants with greater socioeconomic constraints, and to projects benefitting disadvantaged areas. Applicants from local governments that are smaller in size, charge higher water/wastewater rates, and/or have at least three indicators worse than state benchmarks (lower median household income, higher poverty rates, higher unemployment, lower population growth, and/or lower property valuation per capita) and applications that primarily benefit disadvantaged areas score higher, receiving additional application points.
Interested parties are invited to provide comments by June 15, 2022 at 5:00 p.m. Comments can be submitted:
- by email to dwi.publiccomments@ncdenr.gov with subject line Comments on Draft IUPs and/or Draft Priority Rating Systems for CDBG-I, DWSRF & CWSRF
- by mail to: Cathy Akroyd, Division of Water Infrastructure, 1633 Mail Service Center, Raleigh, NC 27699-1633
Additional information on the Division of Water Infrastructure’s funding programs is available at: https://deq.nc.gov/about/divisions/water-infrastructure