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Loan Capacity

Clean Water Fund Program and Safe Drinking Water Loan Program

The Environmental Loans Section intends to provide loan capacity updates on this page and through other channels as additional information becomes available.

Oct. 22, 2025, Update

On July 3, 2025, the state 2025-27 biennial budget was signed into law, which increased the Environmental Improvement Fund (EIF) revenue obligation bonding authority by $732 million. While this helps meet the recent increase in demand for funding, loan capacity also depends on other factors. For example, the Department of Administration must balance how much it can leverage the fund while ensuring loan capacity remains sustainable in the future.

  • Total loan capacity for the Safe Drinking Water Loan Program (SDWLP) is $232 million plus $59.4 million in roll-over for the State Fiscal Year (SFY) 2026 funding cycle. In addition, $38 million in principal forgiveness funding is estimated to be available for approximately $329 million in total funding.
    • This is anticipated to be enough funding for all SFY 2026 SDWLP applicants who submitted complete applications by the SFY 2026 application deadline for principal forgiveness (June 30, 2025).
    • Supplemental SDWLP applications will not be accepted for SFY 2026.
    • The estimated Lead Service Line (LSL) Replacement Program loan capacity from the anticipated LSL Capitalization Grant is not included in this capacity total, which is still pending final allocations from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
    • Supplemental LSL applications will not be accepted for SFY 2026.
  • Total loan capacity for the Clean Water Fund Program (CWFP) is $475 million for the State Fiscal Year 2026 funding cycle. In addition, approximately $45 million in principal forgiveness funding is available for an estimated total of $520million available in funding.
    • This is anticipated to be enough funding for all SFY 2026 CWFP applicants who submitted complete applications by the SFY 2026 application deadline for principal forgiveness (Sept. 30, 2025).
    • Supplemental CWFP applications will be accepted for SFY 2026; however, there is no guarantee that they will be funded.

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Why

The volume of total financial assistance requested in State Fiscal Year 2024, SFY 2025 and SFY 2026 represented a dramatic increase over historical norms.

Although the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL, also known as Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act [IIJA] of 2021) funding provides a substantial increase in the amount of principal forgiveness available, it only increased total loan capacity fractionally. The CWFP and SDWLP have the flexibility to accommodate moderate increases in funding requested over historic norms, but the level of funding requested in the past three years has strained that flexibility.

FAQs

The following questions and answers may be updated in the future if additional questions arise.

Feb. 8, 2024, Webinar

  • On Feb. 8, 2024, the Wisconsin DNR held a webinar to discuss loan capacity limitations and resulting impacts. A recording of the presentation is available here [VIDEO Length 0:14:55].

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What is the impact to current applicants?

Safe Drinking Water Loan Program

Base Program

Sufficient funding is available for all applicants that submitted complete SDWLP applications by the June 30, 2025 application deadline for principal forgiveness for base program projects.

  • Supplemental SDWLP applications will not be accepted for the SFY 2026 funding cycle.

Safe Drinking Water Emerging Contaminants (SDW-EC) Program

Sufficient funding is available for all SDW-EC applicants. For program information, see the DNR's IIJA/BIL-funded SDW-EC Program webpage.

Lead Service Line (LSL) Replacement Program

There will not be enough BIL LSL loan funding for non-private side replacements for all applicants. Those applicants that were not allocated full funding have the opportunity to take base SDWLP loan funding at the standard subsidized loan rate. For more information, read the Oct. 9, 2025 "Lead Service Line Replacement Program State Fiscal Year 2026 Draft Priority List Published" bulletin. For program information, see the DNR's BIL-funded LSL Replacement Program webpage.

  • Supplemental LSL applications will not be accepted for the SFY 2026 funding cycle.

Clean Water Fund Program

Base Program

Sufficient funding is available for all SFY 2026 projects that submitted complete CWFP applications by the Sept. 30, 2025 application deadline for principal forgiveness. Loan funding will be allocated in priority score order on the SFY 2026 funding list. If additional funding is available, that funding can be allocated, in order received, to those projects that submitted complete supplemental applications after the competitive deadline. Additional loan funding may become available if a project closes their loan under budget or a project withdraws.

  • Supplemental CWFP applications will be accepted for the SFY 2026 funding cycle; however, there is no guarantee that they will be funded.

Clean Water Emerging Contaminants (CW-EC) Program

Sufficient funding is available for all CW-EC applicants. For program information, see the DNR's IIJA/BIL-funded CW-EC Program webpage.

Funding lists timeline

The DNR publishes the funding lists for the CWFP, SDWLP, LSL Replacement Program, CW-EC Program and SDW-EC Program on the Project Lists and Intended Use Plans webpage.

  • On Oct. 8, 2025, the DNR published the State Fiscal Year 2026 LSL Replacement Program Draft Priority List. For more information, read the Oct. 9, 2025 "Lead Service Line Replacement Program State Fiscal Year 2026 Draft Priority List Published" bulletin.
  • In October 2025, the DNR intends to publish the SFY 2026 SDWLP Draft Funding List.
  • In December 2025, the DNR intends to publish the SFY 2026 SDWLP Final Funding List and the SFY 2026 CWFP Funding List.

Contact information

Clean Water Fund Program

Direct questions about CWFP funding to:

Lisa Bushby, CWFP Coordinator, at Lisa.Bushby@Wisconsin.gov

Safe Drinking Water Loan Program

Direct questions about SDWLP funding to:

Noah Balgooyen, SDWLP Coordinator, at Noah.Balgooyen@Wisconsin.gov

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