How to Apply for WIFIA Assistance

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Application Process Overview

The WIFIA application process is three phases.

Phase 1: Project Selection: EPA announces the amount of funding it will have available and solicits letters of interest from prospective borrowers. In the letter of interest, prospective borrowers demonstrate their projects eligibility, financial creditworthiness, engineering feasibility, and alignment with EPA’s policy priorities. Based on this information, EPA selects projects which it intends to fund and invites them to continue to the application process. 

Phase 2: Project Approval: Each invitee submits an application for WIFIA credit assistance. Using this information, the WIFIA program conducts a detailed financial and engineering review of the project. Based on that review, the WIFIA program proposes terms and conditions for the project and negotiates them with the prospective borrower until they develop a mutually agreeable term sheet. The Administrator demonstrates project approval by executing the project’s term sheet. 

Phase 3: Negotiation and Closing: Based on the term sheet, the WIFIA program finalizes the terms of credit assistance to a prospective borrower.  At closing, the Administrator and the prospective borrower execute the credit agreement, which is the binding legal document that allows the borrower to receive WIFIA funds. 

For more details on the application process, see the WIFIA Program Handbook.

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Notice of Funding Availability

In the Further Continuing and Security Assistance Appropriations Act, 2017, P.L. 114-254, signed by the President on December 10, 2016, Congress provided $17 million in budget authority for the Water Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act of 2014 (WIFIA) program. This funding covers the federal government’s anticipated cost of providing a much larger amount of credit assistance.  EPA estimates that current budget authority may provide more than $1 billion in credit assistance and may finance over $2 billion in water infrastructure investment. 

The purpose of this Notice of Funding Availability (NOFA) is to solicit letters of interest from prospective borrowers seeking credit assistance from EPA. Prospective borrowers may submit letters of interest from January 10, 2017 until midnight on April 10, 2017.

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Application Materials and Resources

Prospective borrowers must submit a letter of interest for their project to the WIFIA program. In the letter of interest, the prospective borrower provides information to demonstrate its projects eligibility, financial creditworthiness, engineering feasibility, and alignment with EPA’s policy priorities. If EPA selects the projects, then the prospective borrower is invited to submit an application. EPA will only select projects that it expects might reasonably proceed to closing.

Sign up and select "Finance and Funding" to receive announcements about the WIFIA program.

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