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 2024 funding cycle to fund the applications received.  Final Board approval of the full project list will be requested at the fall meeting of the Board.

FY 2024 Program Development

On June 5, 2023, Clean Water Financing and Assistance Program (CWFAP) staff solicited applications from the Commonwealth’s localities and wastewater authorities as well as potential land conservation, living shoreline, and brownfield remediation applicants. July 28, 2023 was established as the deadline for receiving applications.  Based on this solicitation, DEQ received 34 wastewater improvement applications requesting $583,698,953, including four (4) Southwest Virginia Pilot Program construction projects, three (3) stormwater applications requesting $23,928,474, and one (1) land conservation application requesting $5,000,000. In total, DEQ received 38 applications for $612,627,427.

All 34 wastewater applications were evaluated in accordance with the program's Funding Distribution Criteria. In keeping with the program objectives and funding prioritization criteria, the staff reviewed project type and impact on state waters, the locality's compliance history and fiscal stress, and the readiness-to-proceed of the project. The stormwater applications were reviewed using the Board’s evaluation criteria for stormwater projects in accordance with Board guidelines and state law. The land conservation application was reviewed using the Board’s evaluation criteria for land conservation projects in accordance with Board 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 is shown in priority funding order based on the Board’s prioritization criteria for each project type.

CWFAP staff reviewed an updated capacity assessment of the VCWRLF 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, CWFAP staff determined that all projects could not be funded by the VCWRLF and proceeded to eliminate projects from the funding list based on compliance with Virginia Code, multiple applications from a single applicant, applicant cash flow need projections, and previously established project bypass procedures. After an evaluation of funding availability and priority considerations, Virginia’s FY 2024 Project Priority List includes 26 projects totaling $189,548,275.

Public Participation

DEQ is presenting the draft list of targeted FY 2024 loan recipients for public review and comment. The FY 2024 project list can be found on the VCWRLF website here:  https://www.deq.virginia.gov/home/showdocument?id=19733

A public meeting will be held at 10:00 AM on Thursday, October 19, 2023 in the 3^rd Floor Conference Room, 1111 East Main Street, Richmond, Virginia 23219. The public review and comment period will end at 5:00 p.m. on Friday, October 20, 2023.

Comments or questions should be directed to Ms. Karen Doran, Department of Environmental Quality, Clean Water Financing and Assistance Program, PO Box 1105, Richmond, Virginia  23218, phone number (804) 836-5912, or e-mailed to cwfap@deq.virginia.gov.  Written comments should include the name, address, and telephone number of the commenter.