Introduction

The federal Safe Drinking Water Act amendments of 1996 authorized a Drinking Water State Revolving Fund program to assist eligible public water systems to finance the cost of the infrastructure needed to achieve or maintain compliance with the SDWA requirements and protect public health. The Massachusetts Drinking Water State Revolving Fund (DWSRF) Program is a federal-state partnership that provides low-cost financing to help community public water suppliers. The DWSRF Program is jointly administered through the Clean Water Trust by the Commissioner of the Department of Environmental Protection (Department), the State Treasurer, and the Secretary of Energy and Environmental Affairs pursuant to M.G.L. c. 29C, § 2. Financial assistance is available for engineering, design, and construction of drinking water projects. Every summer, the Department solicits projects from Massachusetts municipalities and community water systems (with at least 15 residential connections) to be considered for subsidized loans for infrastructure projects. After evaluating the project requests submitted in response to the annual solicitation, the Department develops a list of projects eligible to receive financial assistance. From this annual list, and on the basis of projects' readiness to proceed and priority rating, the Department assigns projects to a fundable list called the Intended Use Plan Project Listing (IUP). Projects placed on the IUP are eligible to apply for financing in the coming year, with the total cost of all projects on the IUP not to exceed the amount of funding available for that year. To qualify for placement on the IUP, a project must have a high enough ranking, have received a local funding appropriation or be scheduled for funding appropriation by June 30 of the coming year, and the applicant must be able to file a complete loan th application no later than October 15 of the coming year. th