WIIN Grant: Small, Underserved, and Disadvantaged Communities Grant Program

The Water Infrastructure Improvements for the Nation (WIIN) Act establishes the Small, Underserved, and Disadvantaged Communities (SUDC) grant to award funding to states, territories, and tribes to assist public water systems in meeting Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) requirements.

On this page:

Press Release
Background
Available Funding
Eligible Applicants
Eligible Projects
Timeline
How to apply
Webinars
Frequently Asked Questions
Historical Funding
Contact Information

EPA Announces the FY24 Allotments for the Small, Underserved, and Disadvantaged Communities Grant

On May 21, 2024, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced the availability of $25 million for states and territories to invest in clean and safe drinking water. This grant funding will specifically benefit underserved, small, and disadvantaged communities by upgrading infrastructure to comply with the Safe Drinking Water Act, reducing exposure to Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS), removing sources of lead, and addressing additional local drinking water challenges. The EPA funding announced today advances President Biden's Investing in America Agenda to help communities make real progress on critical drinking water Upgrades. Funds may also support efforts to build the technical, financial, and managerial abilities of a water system’s operations and staff. Infrastructure projects—from transmission, distribution, and storage—that support drinking water quality improvements are also eligible for grant funding.

The Small, Underserved, and Disadvantaged Community grant program, established under the Water Infrastructure Improvements for the Nation (WIIN) Act, awards funding to states and territories on a non-competitive basis. EPA awards funding to states based on an allocation formula that includes factors for population below the poverty level, small water systems, and underserved communities. Since 2019, this grant program has allocated over $130 million to states, territories and Tribes. There is a separate allotment to support activities in American Indian and Alaska Native Village communities. You can read the full press release here.

Background

Funding is awarded to states, territories, and tribes on a noncompetitive basis. While noncompetitive, states, territories, and tribes will still need to apply to receive funding. For the purposes of this grant program, the term “state” is used to describe the fifty states and Puerto Rico, Guam, the U.S. Virgin Islands, American Samoa and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands.

The grant program is designed to help public water systems in small, underserved, and disadvantaged communities meet and comply with SDWA drinking water regulations by providing funding for drinking water projects and activities.

The following factsheet and implementation documents describe the eligibility and funding requirements for states participating in the grant program, how the Agency intends to award funding, and other pertinent information. Applicants are encouraged to read through the implementation document before applying.

FY2021 factsheet (pdf) (149.13 KB, 2021)

Small, Underserved, and Disadvantaged Communities Grant Program Implementation Document Updated for FY2021 (pdf) (452.91 KB, December, 2021)

Available Funding

The amount of funding that EPA awards to each state and territory is based on an allocation formula that includes factors for population below the poverty level, small water systems, and underserved communities, including a 10% tribal allotment. This allocation formula is applied to the available funding for the year to determine how much funding is available for each of the 50 states, the District of Columbia, and the five qualifying territories. If fewer than all states and territories participate in the program, the formula will be applied to any remaining and unclaimed base funds, and these funds will be allocated to all participating states and territories.

For FY24, EPA has allotted $25 Million for the Small, Underserved, and Disadvantaged Communities Grant Program.

View the FY24 national allotments:

SUDC Grant Allotments for Fiscal Year 2024 (pdf) (313.52 KB)

Eligible Applicants

The grant program is a noncompetitive voluntary program. Eligibility to apply for and receive funds is limited to the 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam, American Samoa, the Northern Mariana Islands, and tribes within the U.S. Please see the tribal grant webpage for information on tribal allotments.

Once funding has been provided to the states and territories, communities will need to apply to their respective state program for assistance. For more information on the respective state program, please see “State and Regional Contacts” below in the Contact Information section.

Eligible Projects

Projects resulting from SUDC grant funding must take place in a community that is underserved, small and disadvantaged, as defined by SDWA 1459A.

A community is considered ‘underserved’ when it meets at least one of the following criteria:

The community does not have household drinking water or wastewater services.
The community is served by a public water system that violates or exceeds any Maximum Contaminant Level, treatment technique, or action level.

A community is considered ‘small and disadvantaged’ when it meets at least one of the following criteria:

The respective state’s affordability criteria determines that the community is disadvantaged or may become disadvantaged.
The community has a population of less than 10,000 individuals and does not have the capacity to incur debt sufficient to finance a project or activity.

The definition of underserved and small and disadvantaged communities are expanded on in the SUDC Implementation document.

In addition to taking place in a qualifying community, grant funding must be used on projects that will help the community meet and comply with SDWA regulations through infrastructure work, technical, managerial, and financial capacity building activities, or activities necessary for a state to respond to a contaminant.

Examples of qualifying project activities include, but are not limited to, the following:

Treatment
Transmission and Distribution
Source
Storage
Creation of new systems
Consolidation
Household water quality testing, including for unregulated contaminants
Providing households access to drinking water services
Assistance to increase technical, managerial, and financial capacity
Drinking water contamination response efforts.

More information on eligible activities can be found in the SUDC Implementation document.

Timeline

First, EPA informs the states each fiscal year of their allotments for the grant program. States may apply for their individual allotments after they are announced.

Prior to applying for their allotments, states must submit draft workplans to their respective EPA Region. When reviewing the draft workplans, EPA Regions must be able to determine that activities conform to all applicable requirements of the grant. Participating states are encouraged to submit applications as soon as possible. Funding will be awarded on a rolling basis as applications are received. EPA Regional offices are the primary points of contact to approve grant applications and award funding. A general overview of the application process is outlined below.

It is anticipated that project/budget periods will be no more than three years.

How to Apply

EPA Regions will initiate contact with states to inform them of the program and the application process.

Webinars

To learn more about the grant program, the following webinar recordings are available for viewing.

This webinar provides an overview of FY18/19 state workplan requirements. Outreach Webinar for States on Workplan Requirements (held March, 2020)
This webinar discusses the grant purpose and eligibilities. Outreach Webinar for States (held October, 2019)