OLYMPIA, WA – The Washington State Department of Ecology is proposing to award $386 million in grants and loans for 134 high-priority clean water projects across the state. The agency’s Water Quality Combined Funding Program supports communities by helping them upgrade wastewater treatment and sewer systems, manage polluted stormwater, and complete a variety of other projects to prevent and clean up diffuse sources of pollution, also known as nonpoint pollution.
From the Department of Ecology:
Nearly 90% of the funding the Water Quality Program receives is passed through to local communities for environmental and infrastructure projects. Our clean water funding comes from a mix of state and federal funds dedicated for water quality improvements and protection. This includes funding from the 2021 Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL) and the Capitalization Grant, which contributes funding for the Clean Water State Revolving Fund (CWSRF). For state fiscal year 2025, we received approximately $31 million in BIL supplemental funding focused on assisting small, financially disadvantaged communities and $4.5 million of forgivable principal loan funding to address emerging contaminants, such as 6PPD. Forgivable principal loans do not have to be re-paid. Additionally, EPA is providing an estimated $1 million from the Sewer Overflow and Stormwater Reuse Municipal Grants Program, which Ecology is including in the Water Quality Combined Funding program.
We accept applications for funding every year from August to October. In recent years, we established the Small Community Project Priority List. The goal of this list is to create a simplified funding process to minimize the barriers small, financially-disadvantaged communities may face in accessing funding for their wastewater treatment facilities. When these communities need multiple years of funding for wastewater treatment facility projects, they no longer need to apply every year. Instead, they are placed on this list to ensure predictable financial support for these important infrastructure projects. This helps provide local governments with certainty and relieves the burden on rate payers to cover the full cost of these investments. There are 14 small community projects on this year’s draft offer list, including the Onsite Sewage Regional Loan Program which supports low-income homeowners in repairing and replacing their septic systems.
We are holding a public comment period on the draft offer list until March 4, 2024. Please submit public comments using our online comment form.
Or you can attend a public webinar where we will share information about the projects on the draft offer list
Public webinar
Feb. 14, 2024 1 p.m.
Zoom Meeting Link
We will respond to all comments received during the comment period and notify all commenters when we publish our final funding list. The final funding list is expected to be published this Summer.
We are sharing this draft offer list before the Washington State Legislature has passed the 2023-25 Biennial Budget. In addition, the Federal Fiscal Year 2024 (FFY24) federal grants for CWSRF and Section 319 have not been awarded. We based the estimated funding levels on the Governor’s proposed biennial budget released in December 2023 and the estimated FFY24 grant awards for CWSRF and Section 319. This means funding levels are estimates that may change. If the final funding for any of the programs is greater than the amounts estimated, Ecology will offer the additional funds to eligible projects in ranked priority order. If the final funding for any of the programs is less than the amounts estimated, Ecology will reduce the funding offers in reverse ranked priority order. In addition, public comments and possible changes in projects may affect the amounts and projects proposed for funding.
More information
For more information, including access to an interactive map of funded projects and access to the draft list please visit the Water Quality Combined Funding Program Funding Cycles webpage.
