Drinking Water State Revolving Loan Fund

Invitation for Public Comment

The New Mexico Environment Department (NMED) Drinking Water Bureau (DWB) and the New Mexico Finance Authority (NMFA) produce an annual Drinking Water State Revolving Fund (DWSRF) Project Priority List (PPL) and Intended Use Plan (IUP). The IUP identifies the proposed intended uses of the funding amounts available to the DWSRF Program including from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. The current PPL identifies eligible projects for DWSRF funding from all sources for State Fiscal Year (SFY) 2025.

NMED DWB accepted public comment from May 30, 2024, through June 30, 2024, regarding:

• The NMED NMFA DWSRF Program’s IUP for SFY 2025
• Projects on the 2025 DWSRF PPLs

A copy of the IUP and PPL may be obtained from https://www.env.nm.gov/drinking_water/infrastructure‐projects‐and‐funding/ by or by               e‐mailing NMENV-dwbfunding@state.nm.us.  Comments or questions regarding the IUP and PPL may be submitted by accessing the NMED comment portal at https://nmed.commentinput.com/comment/search.

About

The Drinking Water State Revolving Loan Fund (“DWSRLF”) is operated in partnership with the New Mexico Environment Department (“NMED”) to provide low-cost financing for the construction of and improvements to drinking water facilities throughout New Mexico in order to protect drinking water quality and the public health. This federally funded program, managed by the NMFA on behalf of the State of New Mexico, is funded through a federal capitalization grant of approximately $8 million annually. The State is required to match the federal grant by 20 percent. The primary use of the funding is for 0% or .01% loans to drinking water systems to fund vital water quality projects.

Community water systems and nonprofit non-community water systems are eligible to apply for DWSRLF funding. Projects that protect drinking water quality and public health are eligible for the DWSRLF, including new and replacement water sources, treatment, transmission and distribution lines, storage, supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) systems, and infrastructure to interconnect or regionalize water systems. In addition to funding costs needed for project construction, the DWSRLF can also finance planning, design and associated pre-project costs, and land acquisition needed for locating project components.

Program Priorities:

• protection of public health;
• compliance with drinking water standards; and
• affordable access to drinking water.

To ensure the success of the program, NMFA and NMED partner to provide technical, managerial and financial assistance to water systems as well as low-cost loans.