Analysis of Pennsylvania State Revolving Fund Water Infrastructure Financing: The Lehigh River Watershed

Collectively, Pennsylvania’s drinking, storm and wastewater infrastructure is in poor condition. Municipal leaders face a significant backlog of infrastructure maintenance challenges as well as new challenges due to an increasing number of large storm events, which result in flooding and water quality impacts. Although financing for water infrastructure improvement at low interest rates is available through PENNVEST, the US Department of Agriculture’s Rural Development programs and the US Department of Housing and Urban Development community block grants, these funding sources largely go unused. The goal of this project is to gain clarity about whether and how available resources can better address Pennsylvania’s water sector infrastructure challenges by analyzing one watershed, the Lehigh River Watershed.  The project team selected municipal water sector entities in a four county area of that watershed to understand whether there are existing policy hurdles to leveraging state revolving fund and other resources for financing much needed infrastructure improvements.

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