Twenty-nine Iowa communities will received nearly $34 million from the State Revolving Loan Fund to plan or make upgrades to utilities. The Iowa Finance Authority and the Iowa Department of Natural Resources administer the fund which IFA executive director, David Jamison, says started with federal funds.
“It’s been a way of taking the annual grants from the EPA and actually leveraging them many times over so that we are able to do a lot more with the funds. And it keeps the interest rate low, but it also keeps the fund pretty flush,” Jamison says.
The federal funds are loaned out for projects, and the interest paid by cities goes back into the funds to be loaned out again. Jamison says more than 500 communities have used the low interest loans to plan and build facilities since the fund was created. “Primarily water treatment facilities for drinking water and also treatment facilities for what we call ‘clean water,’ a sewage treatment plant,” Jamison says.
The fund has already awarded more than two-point-one billion dollars in construction loans and 130 million dollars for planning and design loans. “We don’t have a set limit, we’ve been able to fund all requests so far. We’ve never had a default from any city,” Jamison says. “It’s a great partnership with the Department of Natural Resources where they do a lot of the engineering and the site prep, and then we do the financing.”
Jamison says the fund is a great low-cost option for communities to make improvements. “Every year the EPA evaluates how states are using their water quality grants and — I don’t know all the criteria — but it’s basically are you getting the funds out the door and getting the funds on mission. And Iowa was ranked number one out of the states in using this water quality grant,” Jamison says.
The latest grants ranged from $30,000 for Monona to plan a system in Clayton County, to some $13 million for the Des Moines Metro Waste Authority for various projects.
Here is a complete list of the grants and amounts:
Loan recipient County Amount Project Type
New Albin Allamakee $50,000 Planning & Design
Aplington Butler $800,000 Drinking Water Construction
Rockwell City Calhoun $182,500 Planning & Design
Cumberland Cass $396,000 Drinking Water Construction
Monona Clayton $30,000 Planning & Design
Holy Cross Dubuque $750,000 Clean Water Construction
Farley Dubuque $35,000 Planning & Design
Dike Grundy $220,000 Planning & Design
New London Henry $4,891,000 Clean Water Construction
New London Henry $370,000 Drinking Water Construction
Arthur Ida $85,300 Planning & Design
Battle Creek Ida $263,000 Clean Water Construction
Miles Jackson $120,000 Planning & Design
Lambs Grove Jasper $181,000 Clean Water Construction
Oxford Johnson $67,000 Planning & Design
North Liberty Johnson $1,350,000 Planning & Design
Keota Keokuk $50,000 Planning & Design
Keokuk Lee $5,333,000 Clean Water Construction
Columbus Junction Louisa $1,206,000 Drinking Water Construction
Pella Marion $1,150,000 Planning & Design
Hastings Mills $120,000 Planning & Design
Elliott Montgomery $250,000 Clean Water Construction
Des Moines Metro Wastewater Reclamation Authority Multiple $1,800,000 Clean Water Construction
Des Moines Metro Wastewater Reclamation Authority Multiple $5,400,000 Clean Water Construction
Des Moines Metro Wastewater Reclamation Authority Multiple $6,000,000 Clean Water Construction
Sanborn O’Brien $225,000 Planning & Design
Ashton Osceola $400,000 Clean Water Construction
Fonda Pocahontas $200,000 Planning & Design
Grimes Polk $950,000 Planning & Design
Ames Story $375,000 Planning & Design
Roland Story $150,000 Planning & Design
Seymour Wayne $343,000 Clean Water Construction