The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is launching the Water Finance Clearinghouse, a web‐based portal to help communities make more informed financing decisions about their drinking water, wastewater, and stormwater infrastructure needs.

The Clearinghouse provides a searchable database with more than $10 billion in funding sources and over 550 resources to support local water infrastructure projects. It consolidates and expands upon existing EPA-supported databases to create a one-stop shop for all infrastructure financing needs. The Clearinghouse was developed by EPA’s Water Infrastructure and Resiliency Finance Center.

“Investing in water infrastructure sustains local economies by creating jobs, protecting public health, and increasing quality of life,” says D. Lee Forsgren, deputy assistant administrator for EPA’s Office of Water. “EPA’s Clearinghouse is a vital portal that helps connect communities with the information and tools they need to finance much needed water infrastructure improvement projects.”  

Each year approximately 240,000 main breaks occur and billions of gallons of raw sewage are discharged into local surface waters from aging conveyance systems. Communities increasingly need efficient access to up-to-date water finance information to rehabilitate or replace this infrastructure, and the new Clearinghouse meets the need.

The Clearinghouse provides the ability to search for available funding sources for infrastructure as well as resources (e.g. reports, web pages, and webinars) on financing mechanisms and approaches. State, federal, local, and foundation funding sources and resources on public-private partnerships, asset management practices, revenue models, and affordability approaches are all included.

The Clearinghouse is updated in real time, following a crowdsourcing model. States, federal agencies, and other water sector stakeholders have the ability to suggest edits and new resources or funding options at any time through the “Contributor Portal.” Stakeholders can use this interactive feature to manage how their programs and initiatives are displayed in the Clearinghouse.  

EPA webinars on how to use the Clearinghouse are scheduled for: July 27 and 31, and Aug. 3, 14, 18, 24, and 31. 

All webinars will be held from 2 to 3 p.m. Eastern time. You can register here.