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State revolving fund (SRF) loans for water and sewer projects

If your town, county or water district needs to fix a treatment plant, replace pipes or deal with stormwater, the State Revolving Funds are usually the first place to look. There are two: the Clean Water State Revolving Fund (CWSRF) for wastewater and water quality, and the Drinking Water State Revolving Fund (DWSRF) for drinking water systems. Both are run by your state, with federal money from EPA. This page sets out how they work, what they pay for and how to apply, from EPA's own pages.

Mostly loans, with some subsidy

The SRFs are loan funds first. EPA gives each state a capitalization grant, the state adds a 20 percent match, and the state lends the money out. As loans are repaid, the money is lent again, which is why they're called revolving funds.

So when someone talks about "SRF grants", they usually mean the subsidized part of an SRF loan. Most of the money is still a loan.

Clean Water State Revolving Fund

The CWSRF was created by the 1987 amendments to the Clean Water Act, under 33 U.S.C. §1383. EPA says 11 types of project are eligible, including:

For the CWSRF, additional subsidization has conditions. The annual CWSRF appropriation must be greater than $1 billion, the recipient must be a municipality or an inter-municipal, interstate or state agency, and the money can only go to affordability, or to projects for water or energy efficiency, stormwater runoff or sustainable planning, design and construction.

EPA says that, building on a federal investment of $62.4 billion, the state CWSRFs have provided $194 billion to communities through 2025, in 53,000 low-interest loans.

Drinking Water State Revolving Fund

The DWSRF was set up by the 1996 amendments to the Safe Drinking Water Act (42 U.S.C. §300j-12). EPA splits the money between states using its Drinking Water Infrastructure Needs Survey and Assessment. States can keep about 31 percent of their capitalization grant for set-asides, which fund state programs and activities for safe drinking water, and lend the rest.

Your state ranks the applications it gets into a Project Priority List. By law, priority goes to projects that:

  1. address the most serious risks to human health
  2. are needed to comply with the Safe Drinking Water Act
  3. help the systems most in need, under the state's affordability criteria

EPA's lifetime figures for the DWSRF are older: building on a federal investment of over $21.0 billion, the state DWSRFs had provided more than $41.1 billion to water systems through 2019, in over 15,425 assistance agreements.

How to apply

You don't apply to EPA. EPA says assistance under both funds comes directly from state agencies, so contact the CWSRF or DWSRF program in your state. Each state runs its own process and sets its own loan terms within the federal rules. For drinking water, that means getting your project onto the state's Project Priority List.

If you're a small rural town or district, also look at USDA's Water and Waste Disposal Loan and Grant Program. Our page on USDA water and waste disposal grants covers it.

Get a free list of open grants

Your Evenings runs a done-for-you grant desk for local governments. Each month we find the grants your government is eligible for, draft the applications for your staff to review and submit, and keep track of the deadlines. It's a flat $2,500 a month, with no success fee. Everything is done by email and shared documents, so there are no calls to schedule.

Funders decide which applications are awarded, so we can't promise that any application will be funded.

Email us for a free list of open grants · See the grant desk

Sources

All read on 30 October 2026:

This page summarizes the EPA pages above. It isn't legal or financial advice. Your state's SRF program sets its own terms, so check with it before you apply.

Written with AI assistance by Your Evenings. Last updated October 30, 2026.

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