How to Get WIFIA Funds

You might have a water project at your facility that would qualify for funding in the form of low-interest loans or loan guarantees under the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Water Infrastructure and Finance and Innovation Act (WIFIA) program. Yesterday we gave you a rundown of the program and requirements. Today we will tell you how to begin the process to secure funding.

First, you must submit a letter of interest (LOI) by April 10, 2017, to the EPA. In the LOI, you must demonstrate your project’s eligibility, creditworthiness, engineering feasibility, and alignment with EPA’s policy priorities. Based on this information, the EPA selects projects that it intends to fund and invites them to continue to the application process.

Eight Components to the LOI

The LOI contains eight components of information:

1. Basic information: In this section, you would provide basic information such as its legal name, address, website, Dun and Bradstreet Data Universal Number System (DUNS) number, and employer/taxpayer identification number. In addition, the LOI describes the project’s organizational structure and readiness to proceed. As part of the description of its financial condition, you should include the year-end audited financial statements for the past 3 years. If you are not a state, local, or tribal government, e.g., if you are a corporation or nonprofit, you must demonstrate public sponsorship for the project. Public sponsorship means that you can demonstrate, to the satisfaction of the EPA, that you have consulted with the affected state, local, or tribal government in which the project is located, or is otherwise affected by the project and that such government supports the proposed project.
2. Project plan: You provide a general description of the project, including its location, population served, purpose, design features, project delivery method, and development schedule. You should submit project documents, including preliminary engineering analysis, project plans and specifications, project schedule, and a system master plan, as available.
3. Project operations and maintenance plan: You must describe your plan for operating, maintaining, and repairing the project postcompletion, the sources of revenue used to finance these activities, and an estimate of the economic useful life of the project.
4. Financing plan: You detail the proposed sources and uses of funds for the project and the type and amount of credit assistance you seeking from the WIFIA program.
5. Selection criteria: You sell the project and describe the potential policy benefits achieved through the use of WIFIA assistance with respect to each of the WIFIA program selection criteria.
6. Contact information: You must identify the point of contact with whom the WIFIA program should communicate regarding the LOI.
7. Certifications: You must certify that you will abide by all applicable laws and regulations if selected to receive funding.
8. SRF notification: You acknowledge that the EPA will notify the state infrastructure financing authority in the state in which the project is located that you submitted an LOI and provide the submitted letter of interest and source documents to that authority. You may opt out of having your LOI and source documents shared.

 

The EPA suggests that you use the WIFIA LOI form it provides on the WIFIA website.

Tip: Don’t Forget Community and Employee Outreach

It is always a good idea to keep your neighbors and your employees informed as to any projects you are considering at your facility.

You can get out ahead of misinformation by simply letting folks know:

1. The nature of the project
2. How long it will take
3. The anticipated benefits
4. The short and long term impact on the facility and the community
5. How they can become involved in the project