EPA provides US$89M loan to King County for wastewater treatment upgrades; projects include seismic improvements and new water storage facility at Brightwater Treatment Plant

Today, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced an $89 million loan to King County, Washington, to help upgrade several wastewater treatment systems. Provided by the EPA’s Water Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act (WIFIA) loan program, this funding will support projects that improve the reliability of reclaimed water available for use and enhance the system’s resiliency to future seismic events.

“With EPA’s $89 million loan, we are supporting King County’s efforts to safely manage wastewater while recovering resources to benefit local communities and protecting treasured waterbodies like the Puget Sound,” said EPA Principal Deputy Assistant Administrator for Water Bruno Pigott. “This suite of infrastructure projects, including seismic upgrades, will help ensure that 2 million King County residents have reliable and resilient wastewater treatment that provides a strong foundation for thriving communities.”

“This low-interest financing helps preserve critical wastewater infrastructure to protect Puget Sound while saving rate payers millions of dollars,” said EPA Regional Administrator Casey Sixkiller. “These kinds of partnerships are critical as we tackle the most pressing environmental and public health challenges before us.”

EPA’s WIFIA loan will help the county complete several wastewater treatment plant improvements including the design and construction of a new reclaimed water storage facility at Brightwater Treatment Plant in Woodinville, and pump seismic upgrades and tank rehabilitation at South Treatment Plant in Renton. These advancements are part of King County’s Wastewater 2024 Improvements Project to support system resiliency through the replacement of aging infrastructure and equipment upgrades to mitigate effects of seismic events in the future.

“This federal loan package builds on King County’s historic progress in clean water infrastructure, with the most improvements in the last five years since our treatment system was built in the 1960s,” said King County Executive Dow Constantine. “We value our continued partnership with the EPA to protect Puget Sound and improve water quality for the people, salmon, and orcas that depend on it.”

Since becoming the program’s first borrower in 2018, King County has received four WIFIA loans, which will support over $1 billion in clean water infrastructure investments that will help create over 4,000 jobs and result in cost savings of nearly $100 million. This is the second loan under a master agreement that will commit $498 million for improvements to its regional wastewater system. For this most recent WIFIA loan alone, the county will save approximately $7.2 million over the life of the loan.

Since its creation, EPA’s Water Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act program has announced over $21 billion in financing to support $47 billion in water infrastructure projects that are strengthening drinking water, wastewater, and stormwater infrastructure while creating over 150,000 jobs.

Background   

Established by the Water Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act of 2014, the WIFIA program is a federal loan program administered by EPA. The WIFIA program aims to accelerate investment in the nation’s water infrastructure by providing long-term, low-cost supplemental credit assistance for regionally and nationally significant projects. The WIFIA program has an active pipeline of pending applications for projects that will result in billions of dollars in water infrastructure investment and thousands of jobs.

EPA is currently in its 8th selection round for WIFIA financing. In this round, EPA is offering $6.5 billion through WIFIA, and $1 billion through SWIFIA, which is a loan program exclusively for State infrastructure financing authority borrowers. EPA is currently accepting letters of interest for WIFIA and SWIFIA loans.

In addition to WIFIA loans, there are many federal funding resources available for communities and utilities to improve vital water and wastewater resources. President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law is a once-in-a-generation investment in our nation’s infrastructure and competitiveness. The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law provides a historic $50 billion investment in upgrading critical water, wastewater, and stormwater infrastructure.