Small Town Grants (for wastewater treatment facilities and sanitary sewer collection systems)

A subprogram of the Clean Water State Revolving Fund, the Small Town Grant Program provides matching grants to municipalities with population of 10,000 or less.

As of July 1, 2020, this program has provided $10.1 million in grant funding for projects in conjunction with a Clean Water State Revolving loan. Many small municipalities find that needed projects are too costly without the additional grant subsidy provided concurrent with the CWSRF loan. Grant funding comes from the CWSRF’s Construction Administration Fund.

During FY2008, legislation was passed providing the department with authority to allocate up to 65% of prior-year revenue from fees collected on CWSRF loans. This legislation also increased the population level for eligible communities to 10,000 or less (previous to the legislation, it was limited to communities of 5,000 or less).

Who is eligible?

NDEE considers those communities with populations of 10,000 or less that have completed a Needs Survey and have been placed on the Intended Use Plan.

To ensure that grants will be awarded to communities with severe financial hardship, only those communities with a median household income below the state median household income will be considered. Additional criteria can be found in Appendix E of the Intended Use Plan.

Small town grants are prioritized based on

1. project benefit (as described in Appendix A1 of the Intended Use Plan;
2. estimated debt service per capita as a percentage of medium household income, and
3. the estimated reduction in debt service that could be provided by the matching grant for which they are eligible.

Planning Grants

The FY2008 legislation also expanded authority to provide financial assistance to communities for engineering studies, research and investigations to help communities comply with the federal Clean Water Act and to encourage wastewater reuse. The department provides CWSRF facility planning grants to communities through the Clean Water SRF Administrative Fee Fund.

For more information about those funds, go to Wastewater Facility Planning Grants.

Related documents

Flow Chart for the Nebraska State Revolving Fund

Clean Water State Revolving Fund Publications and Reports

Who to contact

NDEE State Revolving Fund Section (402) 471-4200

E-mail: NDEE.SRF@nebraska.gov

Nebraska Department of Economic Development  (402) 471-4388

USDA Rural Development, Community Programs (402) 437-5556

EPA’s Small Community Outreach Coordinators, EPA Region VII (913) 551-7217

National Small Flows Clearinghouse 1-800-624-8301