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IIJA/BIL-FUNDED CLEAN WATER EMERGING CONTAMINANTS PROGRAM

CLEAN WATER FUND PROGRAM

The Clean Water Emerging Contaminants (CW-EC) Program, which is a subprogram of the Clean Water Fund Program (CWFP) and is funded by the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA), also known as Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL), provides funding to municipalities for water quality projects that will reduce or eliminate any detectable levels of any PFAS contaminant compound for which a surface water quality standard or recommended Wisconsin Department of Health Services (DHS) groundwater standard exists to protect and improve public health and water quality. The Wisconsin DNR provides information regarding the concerns of PFAS (perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances).

Attention: The CWFP and CW-EC Program are not able to award funds directly to private property owners (e.g. individuals, homeowners). The Water and Wastewater Funding Sources webpage includes resources to assist municipalities, individuals, and other entities in locating other sources of funding and technical assistance.

For additional CW-EC Program details, see the corresponding state fiscal year (SFY) CWFP intended use plan (IUP), which is available on the Project Lists and Intended Use Plans webpage.

Allocation of CW-EC FUNDs

The CW-EC funding has been integrated into the CWFP. This allows applicants to compete for general CWFP PF and the CW-EC PF with the remainder of a project being covered by loan funding as long as the costs would be considered eligible under the CWFP.

A separate scoring system has been developed for ranking CW-EC projects, and this ranking will be used for allocating CW-EC PF. Up to 70% of EC project costs, up to a cap of $3,500,000 per municipality, is available for eligible projects in the form of CW-EC PF.

Once the CW-EC PF is allocated, in priority score order, CWFP loan funds, up to $1,500,000, will be allocated for EC-specific project costs not covered by CW-EC PF.

Finally, projects eligible for additional CWFP loan funding and general PF will have funding allocated in regular priority score order.

In the event CWFP loan funding and PF is not sufficient to pay the costs of the project in full, the municipality must identify the non-DNR funding that will finance the remaining project costs.

If a project removes PFAS contamination in addition to other contaminants, the entire project may be considered eligible for CW-EC PF. This determination will be made by the DNR. If the entirety of a project is not related to PFAS contamination removal, then only PFAS-related portions of the project would be eligible for CW-EC PF. The IIJA/BIL CW-EC PF is only calculated on the CWFP-eligible PFAS contamination removal-related costs of the project.

The methodology for allocating CW-EC funding and CWFP funding is specified in the corresponding state fiscal year CWFP intended use plan, which is available on the Project Lists and Intended Use Plans webpage.

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Eligible Applicants

Any city, town, village, county, county utility district, town sanitary district, public inland lake protection and rehabilitation district, metropolitan sewerage district, joint local water authority created under s. 66.0823, Wis. Stats., or federally recognized American Indian tribe or band in Wisconsin is eligible to apply for the CWFP and CW-EC funding.

Note: General CWFP principal forgiveness will not be provided to revenue-generating facilities other than publicly owned treatment works (POTWs, also known as municipal sewage treatment plants) and publicly owned sewage collection systems. Revenue generating facilities excluded from general PF are facilities such as airports and landfills. Stormwater lining projects and best management practices (BMPs) that are not located at an airport or landfill would be considered eligible for general PF. These projects will be evaluated on a case-by-case basis.

Project Eligibility

Water quality projects that will reduce/eliminate any detectable levels of any PFAS contaminant compound for which a surface water quality standard or recommended Wisconsin DHS groundwater standard exists would be considered eligible for funding through the CWFP and the IIJA/BIL CW-EC program.

INELIGIBLE PROJECTS AND COSTS

  • Privately owned projects.
  • Projects where a privately owned responsible party exists and is able to pay to address the contamination.
  • Sampling and analysis of effluent that is required by a Wisconsin Pollution Discharge Elimination System (WPDES) permit.

Eligible project types

For details about the eligible project types, refer to the corresponding state fiscal year CWFP intended use plan, which is available on the Project Lists and Intended Use Plans webpage.

Eligible project types include all of the following:

1. Treatment to remove PFAS from groundwater dewatering discharges associated with publicly owned projects.

  • Examples include:
    • Sanitary sewer or storm sewer construction necessitating groundwater dewatering in areas with contaminated groundwater that has reasonable potential to exceed Wisconsin’s water quality standards for PFOS or PFOA.
    • Building construction (for buildings eligible for CWFP funding) necessitating groundwater dewatering in areas with contaminated groundwater that has reasonable potential to exceed Wisconsin’s water quality standards for PFOS or PFOA.
  • Purchase of PFAS treatment equipment would typically be eligible, depending on design life of the equipment, if purchase of equipment is expected to be more cost effective than rental.

2. Biosolids sampling and storage, processing, and/or disposal expenses incurred by facilities seeking to investigate or address PFAS in biosolids in accordance with Wisconsin’s Interim Strategy for Land Application of Biosolids Containing PFAS.

3. Public sanitary or storm sewer reconstruction or lining projects to reduce inflow and infiltration (I&I) of groundwater or stormwater contaminated with PFAS at concentrations that exceed either the applicable surface water standard for POTWs with a surface water discharge or the recommended groundwater PFAS standards published by the Wisconsin DHS for POTWs with a groundwater discharge.

4. Landfill Leachate treatment to remove PFAS at publicly owned landfills prior to discharge to a sanitary sewer or waters of the state.

  • An approved engineering report will be required as part of the application for these types of projects. Applicants should reach out to the DNR wastewater plan review staff to discuss the required contents of this report.

5. Development and implementation of best management practices (BMPs) to reduce PFAS concentrations in storm water at publicly owned, PFAS-contaminated sites.

6. Treatment to remove PFAS at POTWs is only eligible when the applicant demonstrates in its facility plan that all practicable source reduction efforts have been exhausted.

  • Applicants must consult with the DNR plan review engineer to identify which PFAS concentration data is representative for use in the calculation of eligibility and the project priority score.

7. Groundwater remediation projects on publicly owned sites where PFAS impact or have a potential to impact water quality.

  • The site must be covered under an approved non-point source management plan in order to be eligible for this CW-EC PF funding.
  • These projects are not eligible for general CWFP PF. The subsidized interest rate will be based on the median household income and population size of the entity applying for the loan.

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HOW TO APPLY

The CW-EC funding has been integrated with the CWFP, so the deadlines and application process are the same as the CWFP. While there is no separate application for EC funding, additional Clean Water EC-specific documentation must be submitted with the CWFP application:

  • Emerging contaminants related costs documentation.
  • PFAS concentration documentation.

Application guidance and considerations will be available in the corresponding state fiscal year CWFP intended use plan, which is available on the Project Lists and Intended Use Plans webpage, and under the 'How to Apply' and ‘Deadlines’ tabs on the Environmental Loans webpage.

FEDERAL REQUIREMENTS

As with any federal funding, the CW-EC funding involves federal requirements. All applicants receiving IIJA/BIL CW-EC funds will be treated as federal equivalency projects and will have to comply with the additional federal equivalency requirements detailed on the Federal Equivalency webpage, as applicable.

Applicable federal equivalency requirements include, at a minimum:   

In addition to the federal equivalency requirements, all CW-EC projects will be required to comply with the standard federal requirements including, but not limited to:

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RESOURCES

The Water and Wastewater Funding Sources webpage includes resources to assist municipalities, individuals, and other entities in locating other sources of funding and technical assistance.

For CW-EC Program details, see the corresponding state fiscal year CWFP intended use plan (IUP), which is available on the Project Lists and Intended Use Plans webpage. The DNR hosts a webinar to discuss changes in the annual intended use plan and respond to questions from attendees during the IUP’s public comment period. The webinar is recorded and posted with its slides to the same webpage.

Contact Information

Contact Information

Direct questions about the Clean Water Emerging Contaminants (CW-EC) funding to:

Ryan Atkinson, CW-EC Program specialist

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