Drinking Water State Revolving Fund (SRF) Loan Program – Emergency Rules

What's Happening

On May 3, 2023, we filed a CR-101—Preproposal Statement of Inquiry (PDF), announcing that we were considering permanent rulemaking to Chapter 246-296 WAC—Drinking Water State Revolving Fund (SRF) rule to implement RCW 70A.125.160, the Federal Safe Drinking Water Act, and to conform to the federal Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL) (PDF) that passed in November 2021. To see more about this rulemaking visit our permanent rulemaking webpage.

To ensure that we are funding SRF loans in conformance with BIL, we must adopt emergency rules until the permanent rule is effective. Those emergency rules must remain in effect until all awarded loans have been successfully funded. For the 2023 SRF construction loan cycle, we adopted an emergency rule that allows us to forgive a portion or all the SRF loan amount, update the definition of a disadvantaged community, remove water system plan requirements for those systems that are seeking a loan to address LSL identification and replacement, and remove obsolete priority rating and ranking criteria to allow more water systems to qualify for loans in conformance with EPA’s direction to implement BIL requirements. The original CR-103E Rule-making order, WSR 23-18-044 (PDF), was filed and effective August 30, 2023, and expired late December 2023. We adopted a second emergency rule (WSR 24-02-060 (PDF) to extend the effective date until April 2024. A third and final rule was filed April 24, 2024 (WSR 24-10-049 (PDF) to extend the effective date until late August 2024.  

Why? 

The SRF Loan Program must implement the requirements of BIL, which includes new criteria for public water systems to obtain an SRF loan. BIL requires that states provide loan subsidization, up to 100 percent principal forgiveness, to qualifying disadvantaged and non-disadvantaged communities. BIL also, dedicated $15 billion nationwide in funding to the SRF for lead service line (LSL) identification and replacement loans, 49 percent of which must be provided as forgivable loans to qualifying disadvantaged communities. To award LSL identification and replacement funding in accordance with BIL requirements, EPA recommends that each state evaluate and revise their definition of a disadvantaged community and furthermore, revise the SRF priority point system for project rating and ranking commensurate with need. 

Rulemaking Files

Contacts

Kseniya Efremova, Rules Coordinator

Chris Pettit, Drinking Water State Revolving Fund Manager