Funding offered for local clean water projects; cities being offered loans for wastewater treatment

The Washington State Department of Ecology proposes to award $386 million in grants and loans for 134 high-priority clean water projects across the state.

While eight total projects within Grays Harbor and Pacific counties are being offered funding, only one is being offered a grant.

The Grays Harbor Stream Team was listed as being approved for a grant offer of over $355,000 to expand outreach and education programs within Grays Harbor County.

The other projects listed among the awardees are for local cities. The cities of Aberdeen, Hoquiam, Long Beach, and Raymond all requested grants and loans for wastewater facilities and are being offered a variety of loans for those projects.

Applicant	Project Title	Project Category	Grant Requested/ Eligible	Loan Requested/ Willing to Accept	CWSRF Standard Loan	CWSRF FP Loan	CWSRF Loan Term (years)	CWSRF Loan Interest Rate	SFAP Grant	OSG Grant	Centennial Grant	Section 319 Grant	Total Funding
City of Aberdeen – Public Works	WWTP Aeration Basin and Emergency Power System Improvements	Wastewater Facility-Hardship	$321,500	$321,500	$321,500	$321,500	20	1.20%	$0	$0	$0	$0	$643,000
City of Aberdeen – Public Works	WWTP Primary and Secondary Clarifier Refurbishment	Wastewater Facility-Hardship	$250,000	$250,000	$250,000	$250,000	20	1.20%	$0	$0	$0	$0	$500,000
City of Aberdeen – Public Works	Wastewater Collection System Improvements – I&I Reduction	Wastewater Facility-Hardship	$750,000	$750,000	$750,000	$750,000	20	1.20%	$0	$0	$0	$0	$1,500,000
Grays Harbor Conservation District	Grays Harbor Stream Team Water Quality Outreach and Education	Nonpoint Source Activity	$355,337	$0	$0	$0		0.00%	$0	$0	$355,337	$0	$355,337
City of Hoquiam	Hoquiam Wastewater Pump Station Improvements Project	Wastewater Facility-Hardship	$627,500	$627,500	$627,500	$627,500	30	1.60%	$0	$0	$0	$0	$1,255,000
City of Hoquiam	K Street Pump Station Improvements	Wastewater Facility-SCPPL	$0	$2,620,000	$2,620,000	$0	20	1.20%	$0	$0	$0	$0	$2,620,000
City of Long Beach	City of Long Beach North Blvd Improvements	Wastewater Facility-Hardship	$742,500	$607,500	$607,500	$742,500	20	0.80%	$0	$0	$0	$0	$1,350,000
City of Raymond	Willapa Regional WWTP Settling Mitigation Projects	Wastewater Facility	$210,250	$4,412,750	$4,412,750	$210,250	30	1.60%	$0	$0	$0	$0	$4,623,000

The Water Quality Combined Funding Program supports communities by helping them upgrade wastewater treatment and sewer systems, manage polluted stormwater, and complete a variety of other projects to prevent and clean up diffuse sources of pollution, also known as nonpoint pollution.

Nearly 90% of the funding the Water Quality Program receives is passed through to local communities for environmental and infrastructure projects.

“Our clean water funding comes from a mix of state and federal funds dedicated for water quality improvements and protection. This includes funding from the 2021 Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL) and the Capitalization Grant, which contributes funding for the Clean Water State Revolving Fund (CWSRF). For state fiscal year 2025, we received approximately $31 million in BIL supplemental funding focused on assisting small, financially disadvantaged communities and $4.5 million of forgivable principal loan funding to address emerging contaminants, such as 6PPD. Forgivable principal loans do not have to be re-paid. Additionally, EPA is providing an estimated $1 million from the Sewer Overflow and Stormwater Reuse Municipal Grants Program, which Ecology is including in the Water Quality Combined Funding program. “

Ecology accepts applications for funding each year between August to October.

In a release, Ecology says that in recent years they established the Small Community Project Priority List. The goal of this list is to create a simplified funding process to minimize the barriers small, financially disadvantaged communities may face in accessing funding for their wastewater treatment facilities. When these communities need multiple years of funding for wastewater treatment facility projects, they no longer need to apply every year. Instead, they are placed on the list to ensure predictable financial support for these important infrastructure projects. This helps provide local governments with certainty and relieves the burden on ratepayers to cover the full cost of these investments.

There are 14 small community projects on this year’s draft offer list, including the Onsite Sewage Regional Loan Program which supports low-income homeowners in repairing and replacing their septic systems.