The Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Army for Civil Works and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) announced the first set of proposals are being invited to apply for loans under the new Corps Water Infrastructure Financing Program (CWIFP).
CWIFP is a new federal financing program to provide loans and loan guarantees for borrowers for safety projects to maintain, upgrade and repair non-federal dams.
To date, Congress has provided the program with $81 million through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and additional appropriations. CWIFP will use some of these funds to extend credit assistance to help finance non-federal dam safety projects. USACE is inviting 18 proposals spanning 12 states to submit full applications to the program.
The selection of proposals to apply to CWIFP now enables applicants to work with USACE to conduct financial, technical and programmatic evaluations of each application as the next step in the process leading toward potential financial assistance offers.
The proposals invited to apply to CWIFP include dam repairs, dam replacements, seismic retrofits and spillway capacity increases. Some of the proposals involve either direct or indirect benefits to economically disadvantaged communities. In addition to this first set of proposals being invited to apply, others remain under consideration for potential inclusion in CWIFP.
The funding is limited to dam safety projects that are non-federally owned, operated and maintained. Funding will be provided for up to 49% of project costs, or up to 80% of project costs for projects that serve economically disadvantaged communities. The CWIFP augments other public or private funding and financing sources and requires a dedicated source of repayment (i.e. state or local taxes, user fees, etc.). It is available to projects or group of projects with eligible costs in excess of $20 million
“With this announcement, we are facilitating efforts to address the condition of dam infrastructure in the United States. The program will help to improve the resilience of this water infrastructure in the face of climate change-driven extreme weather,” said Michael Connor, assistant secretary of the Army for civil works. “The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, including funding for CWIFP, is spurring improvements and helping to ensure the safety and security of the nation’s water infrastructure.”
CWIFP is authorized by the Water Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act (WIFIA) which was signed into law on June 10, 2014, as part of the Water Resources Reform and Development Act of 2014. The act established federal credit programs to be administered by USACE and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for eligible water and wastewater infrastructure projects.
Invited applicants have one year to complete and submit their full application. A full list of invitations is available here.
