EPA Awards New Jersey $84M For Water Infrastructure Improvements

As the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) celebrates its 50^th anniversary year and this month’s anniversary theme of “successful partnerships,” the agency is announcing today that it has awarded $84M to New Jersey for State Revolving Funds (SRFs) to assist with water infrastructure projects that help protect surface water and provide safe drinking water to communities throughout the state.

“EPA’s continued commitment to investing in our state and local partners’ infrastructure projects helps ensure residents have affordable access to safe drinking water and cleaner waterways,” said EPA Regional Administrator Pete Lopez. “These funds, along with some recent flexibility that allowed New Jersey to transfer some of its clean water SRF funds to be applied to drinking water system improvements focused on lead, will provide critical upgrades to help modernize New Jersey’s water infrastructure needs while protecting human health and the environment. These grants represent a long-standing and fruitful partnership between EPA and states.”

EPA awarded $65M to the New Jersey Clean Water State Revolving Fund (CWSRF) program, administrated by the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP) and its financing program, the New Jersey Infrastructure Bank (NJIB). The CWSRF program provides low-interest loans and principal forgiveness for the improvement of water quality protection infrastructure projects, including modernizing aging wastewater infrastructure, implementing water reuse and recycling and addressing stormwater, which will protect New Jersey’s lakes, rivers and the Atlantic Ocean.

EPA awarded $19M to the New Jersey Drinking Water State Revolving Fund (DWSRF) program, also administrated by NJDEP and NJIB. The DWSRF program provides low-interest loans and principal forgiveness for the construction of drinking water infrastructure projects and for the administration of small system technical assistance, source water protection, capacity development, and operator certification. The DWSRF program will protect people’s health by reducing exposure to contaminants in drinking water.

This action supports EPA’s 50^th anniversary celebration and its February theme of protecting America’s waters—including surface water protection, safe drinking water and water infrastructure investments.

Background

Under the Clean Water and Drinking Water State Revolving Fund programs, EPA provides funding to all 50 states and Puerto Rico to capitalize SRF loan programs. The states and Puerto Rico contribute an additional 20 percent to match the federal grants. The 51 SRF programs function like infrastructure banks by providing low-interest loans to eligible recipients for drinking water and clean water infrastructure projects. As the loan principal and interest are repaid over time, it allows the state’s DWSRF and CWSRF to be recycled or “revolve.” As money is returned to the state’s revolving loan fund, the state makes new loans to other eligible recipients. These funds can also be combined with EPA’s WIFIA loans to create a powerful, innovative financing solution for major infrastructure projects.

For more information, visit https://www.epa.gov/dwsrf and https://www.epa.gov/cwsrf.