Construction Assistance Programs

The Division of Drinking Water (DDW) administers two financial assistance programs: the "State Revolving Fund" (State SRF) and the "Federal - State Revolving Fund" (Federal SRF). Each program has its own unique set of criteria and requirements, but utilizes a new combined application form (zip) v3.02 in Microsoft Excel (as of 5/17/2013). This version will allow data to be directly imported into our internal database. Please fill out the application and eMail it to DDW. Submittal deadlines for applications are also available.

The State SRF program was created by the Utah State Legislature in 1984 and is governed by the Water Development Coordinating Council (Title 73, Chapter 10c of the Utah Code). It is a state-funded program. Only political subdivisions (e.g. cities, towns, districts, etc.) are eligible for State SRF funds.

The Federal SRF program was created under the 1996 amendments to the Federal Safe Drinking Water Act. Most of the funds in this program originate from the federal government. Federal SRF funds are available for privately and publicly owned community water systems and nonprofit noncommunity water systems.

Typically, in order to receive loan funds from either program, the project sponsor will issue a "revenue bond". The sponsor thus pledges that water system revenue will be used to repay the loan. Other forms of security may also be acceptable.

It should be noted that there are other state and federal agencies which fund drinking water projects. For information on these programs, and for more information on DDW programs, see Overview of Financial Assistance Programs for Drinking Water Projects. Contact information is shown below.

Utah Division of Water Resources: (801) 538-7292
Utah Community Impact Board: (801) 526-9392
Utah Community Development Block Grant Program: (801) 526-4326
Rural Development (a federal agency): (801) 524-4326

Maximum Affordable Water Bill

When a project is evaluated for funding, an attempt is made to determine the "maximum affordable water bill" for the water system. This is calculated as 1.75% of the local MAGI.

The Median Adjusted Gross Income (MAGI) of the applicant's service area is shown below. This is the most recent data from the Utah State Tax Commission.

2011 State MAGI: $37,718 (see Historical Graph)
2011 local MAGI by City
2011 local MAGI by ZIP Code

The Average State Water Bill of all the water systems in the State is used in prioritizing applicants for Federal SRF funding. This has been determined from the 2010 Community Water System Survey Report.

$43.14 (as a reference this is 1.37% of 2011 State MAGI of $37,718)

Potential Construction Projects in Utah

States differ in how they prioritize needed improvements for the water systems they oversee. Utah has a unique system in place called the Improvement Priority System (IPS) which is based on a point system for various deficiencies and violations. In concert with the Division's Project Priority List scoring system for funding capital improvements projects, we developed a list of potential construction projects based on the adjusted IPS points of the respective systems as well as their local income and water bills. This list will alert engineering consultants to those systems in most need of capital improvements and that have IPS points that may be resolved by constructing drinking water infrastructure.