Loan Capacity
Clean Water Fund Program and Safe Drinking Water Loan Program
The Environmental Loans Section intends to provide loan capacity updates on this page and through other channels as additional information becomes available.
7/25/24 Update
The DNR and the Wisconsin Department of Administration have recently completed an evaluation of loan capacity for State Fiscal Year (SFY) 2025 funding.
- Loan capacity for the Safe Drinking Water Loan Program (SDWLP) is currently estimated at $124 million for SFY 2025. This is consistent with the loan capacity estimate that was included in the SDWLP Intended Use Plan.
- SDWLP Lead Service Line Replacement projects receive funding from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and do not impact the above loan capacity amounts.
- Loan capacity for the Clean Water Fund Program (CWFP) is currently estimated at $364 million for SFY 2025. This amount has been updated and is an increase over the amount included in the CWFP Intended Use Plan.
- Principal forgiveness amounts are in addition to the amounts provided above. As such, the amount of funding allocated on each programs funding list will be sum of available loan and principal forgiveness and will be greater than the amounts shown above.
FAQs
The following questions and answers came from the DNR’s State Fiscal Year 2024 Loan Capacity Webinar that was held on February 8, 2024. This FAQ document may be updated in the future if additional questions arise.
2/8/24 Webinar
- On 2/8/2024, the Wisconsin DNR held a webinar to discuss loan capacity limitations and resulting impacts. A recording of the presentation is available here [VIDEO Length 0:14:55].
2/6/24 Update
Due to historically high requests for financial assistance, the following limitations are being implemented immediately:
- The Safe Drinking Water Loan Program (SDWLP) is no longer accepting State Fiscal Year (SFY) 2024 supplemental applications.
- The Clean Water Fund Program (CWFP) will continue to allow the submittal of SFY 2024 supplemental applications, but we expect that loan capacity may be insufficient to meet all additional requests.
- The SFY 2025 CWFP & SDWLP application cycles will continue as planned.
Why
The volume of total financial assistance requested in SFY 2024 has increased drastically over historical norms. To date, over $763 million in financial assistance has been requested from the CWFP & SDWLP programs (not including lead service line [LSL] funding requested). This is nearly twice as much funding as what is normally requested.
Although the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL) funding provides a substantial increase in the amount of principal forgiveness (PF) available, it only increased total loan capacity fractionally. The CWFP & SDWLP have the flexibility to accommodate moderate increases in funding requested over historic norms, but the level of funding requested thus far in SFY 2024 has nearly exhausted that flexibility.
Committing additional financial assistance to additional supplemental applications may decrease the capacity of the SDWLP & CWFP in future fiscal years. The above limitations on supplemental applications are being implemented to protect future loan capacity.
What is the impact to current applicants?
Sufficient financial assistance is available to meet the funding requests of current applicants listed on:
What are the impacts to future applicants?
- SDWLP SFY 2024 supplemental applications are not currently being accepted. We instead recommend applying for funding in SFY 2025 (applications due June 30, 2024).
- CWFP supplemental applications can be submitted throughout the remainder of the state fiscal year, which ends June 30, 2024; however, funding for these projects will only be allocated as loan funding availability permits. SFY 2024 supplemental applicants that do not receive financial assistance are encouraged to compete for funding in SFY 2025 (applications due September 30, 2024, to compete for funding).
- For SFY 2025, SDWLP & CWFP general PF and emerging contaminants (EC) PF will be available in amounts comparable to SFY 2024. However, the availability of corresponding loan funding will be less than what was allocated in SFY 2024. If loan volume returns to a level closer to historic norms, there should be sufficient financial assistance available for all applicants. However, if loan volume is comparable to SFY 2024 levels, there will not be enough financial assistance available for all applicants. In that scenario, loan funding will be awarded to eligible applicants in priority score order using the same process that is currently used for awarding general PF.
- LSL applicants will not be impacted by these funding limitations. Due to the fact that all funding for LSL replacement projects comes directly from the BIL, LSL projects are not subject to the same limitations on loan funding as all other SDWLP projects. LSL funding availability is expected to be sufficient to meet demand.
Contact information
- Clean Water Fund Program
- Direct questions about CWFP funding to:
- Lisa Bushby, CWFP Coordinator, at Lisa.Bushby@Wisconsin.gov
- Safe Drinking Water Loan Program
- Direct questions about SDWLP funding to:
- Noah Balgooyen, SDWLP Coordinator, at Noah.Balgooyen@Wisconsin.gov