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Like any good investment, you must put into it - to get something out of it. Our state decision-makers believe in investing in Maryland’s future to assure our citizens, clean, abundant water for generations to come, while staying on the heels of our 2010 Bay restoration deadline. The Maryland Department of the Environment (MDE) provides financial assistance for planning, design and construction of many water management projects, to:
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Upgrade wastewater facilities
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Retrofit stormwater management and conversion projects
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Restore streams
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Acquire, construct, rehabilitate, and improve water supply facilities throughout the state
Every January, MDE’s Water Quality Infrastructure Program invites local governments and private drinking water treatment plant owners to apply for capital project funding from financial assistance programs administered by MDE. These include:
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State grants under the Biological Nutrient Removal (BNR),
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Supplemental Assistance
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Small Creeks and Estuary Restoration
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Stormwater Pollution Control
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Bay Restoration Fund - Enhanced Nutrient Removal (ENR)
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Bay Restoration Fund - Sewer Rehabilitation
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Water Supply Financial Assistance programs
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Low interest rate loans through Water Quality and Drinking Water Revolving Loan Fund programs
The BNR Cost Share Grant Program is a State and local cost-share grant program for local governments to assist in implementing BNR technology at Maryland’s largest publicly-owned sewage treatment plants. Since 1984, this program has provided over $239 million for BNR upgrades. As a result, nitrogen loads to the Bay have been reduced by 16.6 million pounds per year.
The Supplemental Assistance Program provides grant assistance to local governments for planning, design and construction of wastewater projects that are needed to address a public health or water quality problem of high priority to MDE, and where the ability of the grantee to pay for the needed improvements is usually limited. The majority of grant recipients are the more rural, less affluent counties and municipalities. Over the years, this program provided over $67.8 million for compliance-related wastewater treatment plants upgrades; connection of older, established communities with failing septic systems to public sewers; and the correction of system deficiencies such as combined sewer overflows, excessive inflow and infiltration, or antiquated pump stations. Currently this program is funding 32 wastewater projects throughout the state.
The Small Creeks and Estuaries Restoration Program (SCERP) funds water quality restoration projects in seriously degraded water bodies in Maryland. SCERP was first funded in the 1990 capital budget to assist local governments in voluntary efforts to restore and enhance streams and creeks in older, developed areas of the state, often in conjunction with other revitalization efforts. Since 1990, the program provided over $16.3 million and is currently funding nine projects throughout the state.
TheMaryland Stormwater Pollution Control Cost-Share Programfunds the implementation of stormwater management retrofit and conversion projects as a means of controlling the load of nutrients and pollutants entering the state's waterways from older, existing developed areas. This Program, which has been in existence since July 1984, provides a financial impetus to local governments to voluntarily install stormwater best management practices (BMP) to reduce stormwater runoff and pollution. Since 1984 this program provided over $22.5 million for various BMPs and is currently funding 11 projects.
The Bay Restoration Fund established during the 2004 Legislative Session provides funds for activities that reduce nutrient pollution into the Chesapeake Bay. The ENR Program under this fund was established to provide up to 100 percent grant funding to upgrade significant wastewater treatment plants to reduce nitrogen and phosphorous concentrations in wastewater effluent to state-of-the-art treatment levels of 3 mg/l Total Nitrogen and 0.3 mg/l Total Phosphorus.
Revenues collected from wastewater treatment plant users pay for upgrading the 66 largest wastewater treatment plants with state-of-the-art ENR technology. Sixty percent of the funds collected from septic system owners are used to upgrade septic systems with best available technology, and 40 percent is used to pay farmers to plant cover crops to absorb nitrogen.
To date this program provided over $72 million in grants for planning, design and construction of ENR upgrades. As a result, five wastewater treatment plants are in operation, nine under construction, 13 in design, and 21 in planning.
The Water Supply Financial Assistance Program provides State grants to assist small communities in the acquisition, construction, rehabilitation, and improvement of publicly owned water supply facilities. Over the years this program provided over $59.6 million for these needed projects and is currently funding 14 projects throughout the state.
In addition to the grant programs, MDE manages two low-interest loan programs. The Water Quality State Revolving Fund (WQSRF) provides low-interest loans to local governments to finance wastewater treatment plants and other water quality and public health improvement projects. The Drinking Water State Revolving Fund (DWSRF) provides low-interest loans to local governments and private entities to finance water supply improvements and upgrades. To date, the WQSRF has paid out over $1.2 billion in low-interest loans and the DWSRF some $112.4 million in assistance.
Project Priority Lists Determine Funding
All pre-applications for financial assistance received by MDE during the annual solicitation are rated and ranked for public health, water quality, compliance benefits, and affordability using information included in the pre-applications. Based on project priority ranking and readiness to proceed, MDE develops Project Priority Lists (PPL) for projects eligible for funding. The priority lists are subject to a public participation process that includes mass distribution to applicants and interested parties and a public hearing (held this year on June 22). After a public hearing, the PPL and other information is submitted to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to secure federal funding of the state’s Revolving Loan Programs. The status this year’s capital project solicitation for low-interest loan funding is as follows:
FY2009/FFY2007 Solicitation for SRF Loans
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Program |
No. of Applications
Received |
Total
Need ($) |
Loan
Interest Amount Requested by Applicants
($) |
Total Loan
Funds Available (Projected $) |
No. of Fundable Projects |
| Clean Water |
138 |
820,499,647 |
321,431,003 |
136,630,331 |
21 |
| Drinking Water |
49 |
135,736,884 |
92,259,826 |
30,078,360 |
12 |
| Total |
187 |
956,236,531 |
413,690,829 |
166,708,691 |
33 |
Upon approval by EPA, MDE will develop its annual Capital Budget Request for both loan and state grant programs where funding would become available July 1, 2008 (FY09).
Click here for more information about MDE’s Water Quality Financing Administration.
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