Water & Wastewater Infrastructure Funding Steps for Small Communities

The staff at the Great Lakes Environmental Infrastructure Center (GLEIC) are available to assist your community by explaining the process to acquire funding for your project. There is no charge for this service. EPA has provided GLEIC with a grant to provide staff to provide technical, managerial, and financial assistance to communities with a population less than 10,000.

There are two popular financing programs for infrastructure projects

In the past USDA Rural Development (RD) which provides funding to communities with a population of 10,000 or less was the financing choice for many small communities, however with the BIL money the SRFs are an attractive option for many small communities.

The key is to get in line now for the supplemental BIL money as it is only available for five years.

There are several steps involved to access the funding

1. The first step is to contact the SRF and USDA RD agencies in your state to tell them of your need. In some states the two agencies are able to work together to fund a project.
2. Next retain an engineer to assist you to define the problem and assist with all the paper work required to file for the funding.
3. The State SRFs require the engineer to be selected by the community using the Qualified Basis Selection (QBS) process.
4. Once the engineer is selected a Preliminary Engineering Report (PER) is prepared by the engineer to define the project, prepare a cost estimate, and a time table to proceed to construction. The federal agencies have a standard outline for the PER.
5. Each agency has procedures and required forms to be completed that are a part of the application for funds process.
6. The PER and required forms are submitted to the funding agency for review.
7. The application for funding will be for a loan and the agency will determine if the applicant is eligible for grant assistance or principal forgiveness to reduce the amount of the actual loan and related debt service payments (principal and interest).
8. Once the agency approves the application for funding the community will authorize the engineer to design the project and prepare the construction plans, specifications, and contract documents.
9. The documents are submitted to the agency for approval and to the state for a construction permit.
10. When the documents are approved by all the advertisement for bids for the project is published and distributed.
11. The bids are opened and the low qualified bidder is determined and submitted to the agency for approval.
12. When all approvals are secured there is a loan closing and the funds become available to pay all project costs. The procedures for loan closing and securing funds do differ in each state.
13. Next construction proceeds. The contractor submits monthly pay requests to the community. When approved by the community the contractor’s pay request and related project cost documentation are submitted to the agency for drawdown of funds.
14. When the funds are received the community disburses the funds as appropriate.
15. When the project is complete and approved the final payment is made to the contractor.

How to contact the Great Lakes Environmental Infrastructure Center:

To request no-cost technical assistance with your infrastructure funding project please use one of the three following methods listed below in order of preference. Upon receipt of your request, a staff member will contact you to discuss your project needs.