Small Community Matching Grants (for wastewater treatment facilities)
A subprogram of the Clean Water State Revolving Fund, the Small Community Matching Grants program provides matching grants to municipalities with population of 10,000 or less.
As of July 1, 2008, this program has provided $4.81 million in grant funding for 55 projects in conjunction with a Clean Water State Revolving loan. Many small municipalities find that needed projects are too costly without the additional grant subsidy provided concurrent with the CWSRF loan. Grant funding comes from the CWSRF’s Construction Administration Fund.
During FY2008, legislation was passed providing the department with authority to allocate up to 65% of prior-year revenue from fees collected on CWSRF loans. This legislation also increased the population level for eligible communities to 10,000 or less (previous to the legislation, it was limited to communities of 5,000 or less). For FY2009, up to $650,000 is available for construction grants, and any one community can receive a maximum of $200,000.
Who is eligible?
NDEQ considers those communities with populations of 10,000 or less that have completed a Needs Survey and have been placed on the Intended Use Plan.
To ensure that grants will be awarded to communities with severe financial hardship, only those communities with a median household income below the state median household income will be considered. Additional criteria can be found in Appendix F of the State Fiscal Year 2009 Intended Use Plan.
Small town grants are prioritized based on 1) project benefit (as described in Appendix 1A of the Intended Use Plan; 2) estimated debt service per capita as a percentage of medium household income, and 3) the estimated reduction in debt service that could be provided by the matching grant for which they are eligible.
Planning Grants
The FY2008 legislation also expanded authority to provide financial assistance to communities for engineering studies, research and investigations to help communities comply with the federal Clean Water Act and to encourage wastewater reuse. The department provides CWSRF facility planning grants to communities through the Nebraska Environmental Partnership Program. The department has $200,000 available in FY2009 for studies. For more information about those funds, go to Wastewater Facility Planning Grants.
Related documents:
Flow Chart for the Nebraska Clean Water State Revolving Fund