This is a $1.9 trillion dollar legislative package passed by the 117th Congress and signed into law in 2021 in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. ARPA provided emergency grants, loans, and investment to provide economic relief to struggling families, restaurants, workers, and local governments. The ARPA State and Local Fiscal Recovery Fund (SLFRF) provides $350 billion in funding to state, local, territorial, and tribal governments. These funds can be used “to make necessary investments to water, sewer, or broadband infrastructure,” including for lead service line replacement. See this guide for more information.

Drinking Water SRF base funds have been appropriated by Congress each year as part of the annual federal budget and then distributed to the states per an allotment formula dictated by DWINSA.

The Safe Drinking Water Act as well as legislation appropriating funds to the DWSRF require states to provide a portion of each federal capitalization grant to disadvantaged communities (DACs) as additional subsidies. Most often, this is provided in the form of forgivable loans, also known as principal forgiveness. States have broad discretion over how to define DACs as well as other state policies that determine how additional subsidies are allocated. States use varying sets of criteria to define DACs, and so it can mean something different in each state.

The Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) requires that EPA examine the needs for infrastructure improvements and maintenance at public water systems in the US. To accomplish this, EPA is required to conduct a survey and assessment every four years. The SDWA mandates that EPA use this survey to develop a formula to distribute DWSRF capitalization grants to states. By law, each state is guaranteed a minimum allotment of one percent of the total amount available to states. For each DWINSA, EPA uses a standardized methodology to develop a new allocation formula based on each state’s 20-year infrastructure need compared to the national need and accounting for the required one percent minimum allocation for each state. Starting in FY23, an allotment formula based on the 7th DWINSA will be used to distribute the DWSRF Base Appropriations, the IIJA/BIL General Supplemental, and the IIJA/BIL Emerging Contaminants funds. EPA used information collected in the 7th DWINSA on service line materials to develop a separate allocation formula to distribute the DWSRF BIL Lead Service Line Replacement fund.

This program was established by the 1996 amendments to the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA), and is a financial assistance and federal-state partnership program to help water systems and states achieve the health protection objectives of the SDWA.

This is a term used by water quality professionals to describe pollutants that have been detected in environmental monitoring samples, that may cause ecological or human health impacts, but which are not yet regulated under current environmental laws. The class of chemicals known as PFAS (per-and polyfluoroalkyl substances), also known as forever chemicals and including PFOA and PFOS, are part of this broader term of ‘contaminants of emerging concern.’

The dollars allotted to states each year from the EPA. These are determined after Congress has appropriated funds and may be less than what was appropriated due to national set-asides.

The federal government’s fiscal year runs from October 1 to September 30 each year.

This legislation was passed by the 117th Congress and signed into law in 2021. IIJA authorizes funds for federal aid for highways, transit, broadband, water infrastructure, and other purposes, including $43 billion to states for water infrastructure through the SRF programs, $15 billion of which is specifically designated for lead service line replacement. See this guidebook for more information.

As a condition of receiving a federal capitalization grant from DWSRF appropriations, each state must prepare and submit an IUP to the EPA for approval. The IUP is a formal document that explains the policies that determine how DWSRF assistance will be distributed within the state. IUPs are prepared annually and subject to public comment and review before being submitted to EPA.

The risk of lead in drinking water largely comes from lead service lines. IIJA, through the DWSRF, includes $15 billion towards “lead service line replacement projects and associated activities directly connected to the identification, planning, design, and replacement of lead service lines.” EPIC and many states often refer to the shorthand of “lead” or “lead service lines (LSLs)” or “lead service line replacement (LSLR)” to describe this funding. In addition, the full service line from the public water main to the point at which it connects with premise plumbing is a DWSRF-eligible expense, regardless of the ownership of the property on which the service line is located.

This is funding that is distributed in the form of forgivable loans, meaning that, at the completion of a project, the community does not have to repay the loan. Forty-nine percent of the general supplemental DWSRF and LSLR funds appropriated through IIJA must be provided to state-defined disadvantaged communities as grants or forgivable loans. The remaining 51 percent is either set aside for administration, technical assistance, and other allowed drinking water needs or provided to communities as low-interest loans for water infrastructure projects. One hundred percent of the IIJA funding to address emerging contaminants must be distributed as grants/forgivable loans or set aside.

As part of the IUP, the state must prepare a list of prioritized awards that will be funded each year.

This legislation was originally passed by Congress in 1974 to protect public health by regulating the nation’s public drinking water supply, and was amended in 1986 and 1996. SDWA authorizes the EPA to set national health-based standards for drinking water to protect against both naturally-occurring and human-made contaminants that may be found in drinking water.

Each state has its own fiscal year, which may also run from October to September or alternatively from July to June or some other calendar period.

SRFs are financial assistance and federal-state partnership programs that provide low-cost financing to communities for a wide range of water infrastructure projects. The Clean Water State Revolving Fund (CWSRF) supports wastewater and stormwater infrastructure and the Drinking Water State Revolving Fund (DWSRF) supports drinking water infrastructure.

Drinking Water SRF supplemental funds were appropriated by congress for IIJA and are broken into three main categories: general supplemental, lead service line replacement, and emerging contaminants.