Millions of residents in high-income countries lack access to safely managed drinking water and wastewater services at home. Financing improvements to water-related infrastructure access is primarily dependent upon utility revenue or assistance from government agencies and non-governmental organizations. In the United States (US), the State Revolving Fund (SRF) is the single largest government program for communities to obtain funding to improve their water-related infrastructure challenges. The program is funded annually by the US Congress through the US Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) and was bolstered by an influx of funding through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law ($50 billion) and the American Rescue Plan Act ($350 billion). For the Federal fiscal year 2024, the US Congress allocated and the USEPA distributed $11.5 billion to the SRF programs among States, Territories, Tribes and SRF initiatives at USEPA. However, accessing the SRF program is complicated and can prove insurmountable for the millions of residents living in rural, small, or otherwise disadvantaged communities (DACs) without reliable and affordable access to clean piped drinking water and functioning wastewater treatment systems. This study analyzed the $3.3 billion in funding requests to Alabama’s SRF to reveal that 69.6% of drinking water utilities and 70.3% of wastewater utilities have sought SRF funding for infrastructure upgrades since 2022. In Alabama, DACs comprise 55.4% of census tracts (2.2 million people) and 84.7% of SRF applications could potentially be serving DACs, yet only 24.6% of the funds awarded through recent Intended Use Plans (IUPs) are intended for DACs. This novel analysis seeks to provide a greater understanding of key infrastructure funding mechanisms, analyze how Federal funds are being delivered to communities and encourage decision-makers to shift funding programs to better reach DACs.

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