Disadvantaged Community (DAC) Definitions in the Great Lakes States for Drinking Water State Revolving Funds: Guidance for a Mapping Tool to Explore and Assess DAC Definitions

By Janet Pritchard and Lauren Kwan

With the goal of uplifting best practices and informing policy reforms, the Center for Neighborhood Technology (CNT) and Environmental Policy Innovation Center (EPIC) are creating an online mapping tool to help advocates, State Revolving Fund (SRF) administrators, and other water infrastructure partners to characterize, evaluate, and generate insights into how states define disadvantaged communities (DACs) for their Drinking Water State Revolving Fund (DWSRF) programs.

The DAC Mapping Tool maps the DAC definitions of six Great Lakes States—Illinois, Indiana, Minnesota, New York, Ohio, and Wisconsin.

This report describes and explains how the six Great Lakes DWSRF programs included in the DAC Mapping Tool define DACs. It also serves to introduce the wide variation seen in state DAC definitions. Keeping in mind that the mapping tool will collect, characterize, and compare DAC definitions, the report also notes how some elements of states’ DAC definitions, such as whether the factors use publicly available data, pose challenges in the mapping process. 

The report also provides context for the DAC definitions included in the Mapping Tool, including other state SRF policies that determine which communities benefit from DWSRF assistance, the nature of these benefits, and how other state policies interface with state DAC definitions.