EPA Drinking Water State Revolving Fund (DWSRF) — via PENNVEST

Federal capitalization grant program providing low-interest loans (and principal forgiveness for disadvantaged communities) for drinking water infrastructure. In Pennsylvania, administered through PENNVEST.

The Drinking Water State Revolving Fund (DWSRF) is the federal government's primary financing program for drinking water infrastructure. EPA capitalizes state-level revolving funds, which then issue long-term, low-interest loans (and increasingly principal forgiveness for disadvantaged communities) to public water systems for treatment, distribution, source water protection, lead service line replacement, and PFAS remediation projects.In Pennsylvania, the DWSRF is administered by PENNVEST in partnership with PA DEP. Eligible borrowers include municipalities, municipal authorities, public water systems, and qualifying private and nonprofit water systems. The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law dramatically increased annual DWSRF allocations and the share dedicated to disadvantaged community grants and lead service line replacement, making the next several funding cycles unusually generous.For watershed groups working alongside small drinking water systems, DWSRF is the funding source to know about. Source water protection planning and implementation are explicitly eligible activities — meaning a watershed group's land protection or BMP installation work can directly tie into a system's DWSRF application as a co-benefit.