The Iowa Drinking Water State Revolving Fund (DWSRF) provides low-interest loans and financial assistance to public water systems for the design and construction of a variety of projects to ensure public health protection the provision of safe drinking water.  The DWSRF program has provided more than $1 billion in financial assistance since inception, saving Iowa communities millions of dollars in financing costs. 

The DWSRF program leverages federal funding to finance a wide range of eligible projects at below-market interest rates, including improvements to drinking water treatment, storage, and transmission/distribution systems.
Eligible Applicants
  • Public and private community water systems (CWS), whether they are for profit or non-profit
  • Nontransient noncommunity (NTNC) public water systems, if they are either publicly owned or non-profit
  • Transient noncommunity (TNC) systems if they are owned by government entities
Eligible Projects
The DWSRF program can fund a wide array of drinking water infrastructure projects.  EPA has identified six categories of projects that are eligible to receive DWSRF assistance:
  • Treatment: Projects to install or upgrade facilities to improve drinking water quality to comply with Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) regulations
  • Transmission and distribution: Rehabilitation, replacement or installation of piping to improve water pressure to safe levels or prevent contamination caused by leaky or broken pipes
  • Source: Rehabilitation of wells or development of eligible sources to replace contaminated sources
  • Storage: Installation or upgrade of finished water storage tanks to prevent microbiological contamination from entering the distribution system
  • Consolidation: Interconnecting two or more water systems
  • Creation of new systems: Construct a new system to serve homes with contaminated individual wells or consolidate existing systems into a new regional water system
Loan Terms  
  • Below- market interest rate  
  • No debt service reserve requirements  
  • Low fees 
  • Low debt service coverage requirement  
  • No underwriter or trustee 
  • Funding is always available   
  • No maximum loan amount  
  • No “affordability” restrictions or population limits 
Steps to Financing a Project with SRF  
  1. Project Planning
    A Planning and Design Loan can be used to identify a project’s scope and develop a facility plan. Contact the DNR SRF Coordinator to schedule a project initiation meeting with the DNR project managers. 
      
  2. IUP Application 
    The Intended Use Plan (IUP) Application is used to apply for inclusion on the project priority list of the Drinking Water SRF IUP at the time the Preliminary Engineering Report and the Viability Assessment are submitted. Projects must be on an approved IUP to be eligible for SRF funding. The IUP application is not an application for a loan.  
     
  3. Agency Technical and Environmental Reviews
         
  4. Project Bidding
     
  5. SRF Construction Loan Application
    After the wastewater, stormwater, or drinking water project has been designed and the project is ready for construction financing, an SRF Construction Loan application is submitted by the applicant.
         
  6. Loan Disbursement and Closeout