At Northbridge, we work with many State Revolving Fund (SRF) programs to tackle their management challenges. Recently, we wrapped up work helping the Clean Water SRF programs in New Mexico, Connecticut, Arkansas, and Puerto Rico to complete EPA’s Clean Watersheds Needs Survey (CWNS). The CWNS is a congressionally-mandated effort to catalog the need for wastewater, stormwater, and nonpoint source infrastructure and projects across all US states and territories over the coming 20 years.
This effort required reaching out to hundreds of municipalities ranging in population from 50 to 550,000 to collect data on the critical water-related needs their communities are facing. Given our extensive knowledge of the CWSRF programs, we were able to efficiently assess nuanced project eligibilities in order to find and submit the maximum amount of needs for our clients. While the data is not yet final, we identified more than $25B in needs in these four states alone. We collected and submitted data for nearly 1,000 communities as well as capturing more than $10B in estimated needs for nonpoint source projects. We are now working with most of these state partners to identify strategies for funding these needs and bringing these communities with needs into the SRF programs. Looking ahead, this support will include conducting additional outreach to large communities, streamlining the funding process, strategically modifying disadvantaged community criteria, conducting management reviews, and more.
Northbridge is grateful to have had the opportunity to work with the excellent CWSRF staff in these four forward-thinking states and is proud to have played a part in this important national effort!
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