Introduction

Section 606 of the Water Quality Act of 1987 requires the State to develop an Intended Use Plan (IUP) that identifies the uses of its Clean Water Revolving Loan Fund and to prepare a list of projects targeted for funding assistance.  Following public comment and final Board action, the list of targeted projects for financial assistance becomes the state’s yearly clean water revolving loan Project Priority List (PPL) in the IUP.

Funds Available

With substantial revenues coming in from our large loan portfolio and continued federal and state match funding, the VCWRLF continues to maintain very healthy account balances.  Therefore, the accumulation of funds that have and will occur in the Fund through loan payments, interest earnings, and de-allocations from leverage accounts, plus additional leveraged dollars should result in enough funding being available during the FY 2026 funding cycle to fund the applications recommended for inclusion on the Project Priority List.  Final Board approval of the full project list will be requested at the fall meeting of the Board.

FY 2026 Program Development

On June 9, 2025, the solicitation period for the RLF was opened to wastewater improvement applications from the Commonwealth’s localities, wastewater authorities as well as potential land conservation, living shoreline, and brownfield remediation applicants. July 25, 2025, was the established deadline for receiving applications. DEQ received 25 wastewater improvement applications requesting $438,801,477, one land conservation application requesting $30,000,000, and one emerging contaminants application requesting $6,600,000. In total, DEQ received 27 applications totaling $475,401,477.

The emerging contaminants application and 25 wastewater applications were evaluated in accordance with the program's Funding Distribution Criteria described in the Virginia Wastewater Revolving Loan Fund Design Manual (Design Manual). CWFAP staff reviewed project type and impact on state waters, the locality's environmental compliance history and fiscal stress, as well as the readiness-to-proceed of the project. The land conservation application was reviewed using the Virginia Clean Water Revolving Loan Fund Land Conservation Loan Program Guidelines and state law.

All applications are considered to be of good quality and should provide significant water quality and/or environmental improvements.  The list of applications in Attachment A (titled “VCWRLF FY26 PPL”) is shown in priority funding order based on the prioritization criteria for each project type as outlined in the Design Manual.

CWFAP staff reviewed an updated capacity assessment of the RLF, completed by Virginia Resources Authority (VRA), to determine the level of authorizations the fund could manage while maintaining the ability to provide funds for requests in future years. Based on this assessment, VRA and CWFAP staff determined that all projects could not be funded by the RLF. As such, DEQ eliminated projects from the funding list based on established project bypass procedures. After an evaluation of funding availability and priority considerations, Virginia’s FY2026 Project Priority List includes 22 projects totaling $255,742,977.

Public Participation

DEQ is presenting the draft list of targeted FY 2026 loan recipients for public review and comment. More information on the FY 2026 project list can be found on the VCWRLF website here: https://www.deq.virginia.gov/water/clean-water-financing-and-assistance/virginia-clean-water-revolving-loan-fund-vcwrlf.

The public review and comment period will end on Friday, October 31, 2025.

Comments or questions should be directed to Ms. Meghan Mayfield, Department of Environmental Quality, Clean Water Financing and Assistance Program, PO Box 1105, Richmond, Virginia  23218, phone number (804) 914-3729, or e-mailed to cwfap@deq.virginia.gov.  Written comments should include the name, address, and telephone number of the commenter.