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 financial assistance with those funds.  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 will result in enough funding being available during the FY 2021 funding cycle to fund the applications received.  Final Board approval of the list will not be requested until the December Board meeting.

FY 2021 Program Development

On June 1, 2020 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 10, 2020 was established as the deadline for receiving applications.  Based on this solicitation, DEQ received 11 wastewater improvement applications requesting $172,696,395, three (3) stormwater applications requesting $32,317,700, and one (1) living shoreline application requesting $550,000, bringing the total amount requested to $205,564,095.

All 11 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 living shoreline application was reviewed using the Board’s evaluation criteria for living shoreline projects in accordance with Board guidelines and state law.

One stormwater application to fund a local loan program implementing stormwater Best Management Practices (BMPs) was deemed ineligible for funding because the Virginia Code Section §62.1-229.4 does not allow for funding these types of projects. 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 (note that there are no priority ranking criteria for living shoreline projects). 

Public Participation

DEQ is presenting the draft list of targeted FY 2021 loan recipients for public review and comment. More information on the FY21 project list can be found on the CWFAP website here:

http://www.deq.virginia.gov/Programs/Water/CleanWaterFinancingAssistance.aspx

A virtual public meeting will be held at 10:00 AM on Friday, October 30, 2020. Registration to attend the public meeting can be found here:

https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/5499744377533974031

The public review and comment period will end immediately following the public meeting. Comments or questions should be directed to contact person listed below. Written comments should include the name, address and telephone number of the commenter.

VCWRLF Projects Targeted for FY 2021 Loan Assistance