The Water Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act of 2014 (WIFIA) established the WIFIA program, an EPA-operated bank that provides supplemental, flexible, low-cost credit assistance to public and private borrowers for all types of wastewater, drinking water, and stormwater projects. The WIFIA program offers long-term loans that can be combined with State Revolving Fund assistance, municipal bonds, and federal and state grants to help communities deliver more critical water infrastructure projects for a lower cost with less impact on rate payers.

The WIFIA program has funding available on an ongoing basis. This allows prospective borrowers to request financing on their schedule. Prospective borrowers can apply for and receive WIFIA loans at nearly any stage of project completion and can even receive financing for planning and design-only loans.

For more details, see the WIFIA Program Handbook and the WIFIA FAQ.

Eligibility

WIFIA funding is available to both public and private borrowers. Public borrowers may include but are not limited to local governments, water districts, special utility districts, and other entities using taxes or system revenues to secure their loans.

How to Apply

Prospective borrowers should submit a completed letter of interest form for their project to the WIFIA program. In the letter of interest, the prospective borrower provides information to demonstrate its project’s eligibility, financial creditworthiness, engineering feasibility, and impahttps://www.epa.gov/wifia/wifia-public-borrowersct on statutory scoring criteria.

Instructions for letter submission and the letter of interest template can be found here.

If EPA selects the project, then the prospective borrower is invited to submit an application. The application will give EPA additional information on the proposed project costs, timeline, and approvals, as well as information on the borrower’s credit and legal background.

Contact

Questions can be submitted via email to WIFIA@epa.gov, or via this contact form.

Deadline

The WIFIA program has funding available on an ongoing basis.