Clean Water State Revolving Fund
In 1989, KRS Chapter 224A and 200 KAR 17:050 were enacted to begin a new financial program for construction of wastewater projects. Construction grant program funds were no longer available from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for new projects, and financial assistance was still greatly needed for communities to comply with the Clean Water Act. EPA has been funding the Clean Water State Revolving Fund (CWSRF) in the form of annual capitalization grants to the state. The state must provide a 20 percent match to the federal share.
The CWSRF, also referred to as Fund A, is a 20 or 30-year loan program for planning, design and construction of wastewater infrastructure projects, storm water projects and nonpoint source projects. Fund A also provides assistance to small communities in financing the preliminary costs prior to construction, commonly referred to as a Planning and Design loan. It is a 5-year loan for planning, design, and sanitary sewer evaluation study (SSES) and may be rolled into a subsequent construction loan.
To be considered eligible to receive a CWSRF loan, a project must be identified on Kentucky’s annual Clean Water Intended Use Plan/Project Priority List (IUP/PPL), which is prepared each spring by the Division of Water’s Water Infrastructure Branch (WIB) and published by the Kentucky Infrastructure Authority (KIA).
WIB and KIA, through an interagency agreement, are responsible for administering the CWSRF program to comply with the requirements of the Clean Water Act. The WIB is responsible for reviewing the engineering and construction procurement and pay requests, environmental reviews for all loan projects and reviewing regional facilities plans or asset inventories, reviewing the design and specification contract documents, issuing construction permits, and monitoring the construction progress.