Office of Sustainable Water Solution (office) was created within the State Water Resources Control Board to promote permanent and sustainable drinking water and wastewater treatment solutions to ensure effective and efficient provision of safe, clean, affordable, and reliable drinking water and wastewater treatment services. The Office is focused on addressing financial and technical assistance needs, particularly for small disadvantaged communities through the Small Community Funding Program: Small Community Drinking Water Funding Small Community Clean Water/Wastewater Funding Small Community Emergency Grant Funds Safe and Affordable Funding for Equity and Resilience Program Small Community Drinking Water (SCDW) Funding Program provides assistance to help small disadvantage communities (DACs) implement eligible drinking water capital improvement projects. Small communities are defined as having population no more than 10,000 or no more than 3,300 service connections. DACs are defined as communities with a median household income (MHI) less than 80% of the average statewide MHI and severely disadvantage communities (SDACs) have a MHI less than 60% of the average statewide MHI. The SCDW Funding Program provides low-interest loans and other financing mechanisms, such as grants or principal forgiveness using federal and state funds, for the planning/design and construction of drinking water infrastructure projects that are needed to achieve or maintain compliance with federal and state drinking water statutes and regulations. Eligible planning/design and construction drinking water projects include treatment systems, distribution systems, interconnections, consolidations, pipeline extensions, water sources, and water meters. The SCDW Funding Program utilizes the Drinking Water State Revolving Fund (DWSRF) Policies and annual Drinking Water State Revolving Fund Intended Use Plan (IUP) to administer the program. Loan interest rate of 0% may be available with repayment term up to 40 years or the useful life of the financed assets for construction financing.
