New Jersey Discharger - Vol. 6 No. 3 K

	Vol. 6 No. 3 Winter 1998
A Newsletter About New Jersey's Water Quality Programs

DEP Receives EPA Grants for Infrastructure Projects

The DEP has received three grants totaling $104.7 million from the EPA to capitalize clean water and drinking water State Revolving Funds (SRFs). New Jersey's SRFs are administered by the Environmental Infrastructure Financing Program (EIFP) that is comprised of the DEP and the Environmental Infrastructure Trust. The DEP uses the grant money to provide interest-free loans while the Trust sells revenue bonds to capitalize market rate loans. The two loans are combined to provide borrowers with loans at half the market rate to finance wastewater, drinking water, stormwater and nonpoint source pollution projects.

The three grants the DEP received this year include one for the clean water SRF in the amount of $59.5 million, the eleventh such grant awarded to New Jersey. To date, EPA has awarded a total of $721.4 million to New Jersey for this program.

The two remaining grants, totaling $45.2 million, will capitalize New Jersey's new drinking water SRF. The new program was created under the federal Safe Drinking Water Act amendments of 1996 and amendments to state law. By leveraging this money the EIFP will be able to make $73.2 million available for project financing. Eight borrowers will receive $39.4 million in the EIFP's first financing in November 1998.

A portion of the drinking water SRF grants will be dedicated to small systems, as States are required to use 15 percent of project funds to provide assistance to systems serving fewer than 10,000 persons. Other portions of the drinking water money will be used for non-project set-asides such as, source water protection program administration; development and implementation of a strategy for ensuring the technical, financial and managerial capacity of public water systems; and implementing an operator certification program.

For further information on EPA grants and the state's loan program, contact Assistant Director Nicholas G. Binder, P.E., P.P., of the Municipal Finance and Construction Element, at (609) 292-8961. To have drinking water projects placed and ranked on the Priority List, sponsors should contact Phil Royer, Chief, Water Supply Loans, at (609) 292-5550.

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Last revision Thursday, December 03, 1998