LANSING — Michigan’s Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy (EGLE) held a public listening session to gather stakeholder feedback on planned updates to scoring criteria for the Clean Water State Revolving Fund (CWSRF), including separate scoring tracks for wastewater, stormwater and nonpoint-source projects.

The session on EGLE’s webinar was led by Dan Beauchamp, section manager for the Water Infrastructure Funding and Financing (WIFs) section at EGLE, and moderated by Jim Ostrowski of EGLE’s Environmental Support Division. Beauchamp said the agency intends to post a draft of revised scoring criteria by August, hold a public hearing in September and finalize the criteria in October so the new rules are in place before the SRF intent-to-apply deadline on Nov. 1 for fiscal year 2027 projects.

Why it matters: the 2022 SRF legislation (Part 53) allows EGLE to revise scoring no more frequently than every three years and requires awarding at least 20% of the total allowable points to projects in overburdened or significantly overburdened communities. Beauchamp told attendees, “The one thing that the law does require, is it requires us to award at least 20% of the total allowable points to overburden and significantly overburden communities.” That statutory floor cannot be lowered in the new scoring.

What EGLE presented: the current wastewater and stormwater scoring frameworks allocate up to 100 total points across compliance, public health, water quality, infrastructure improvement and affordability/overburden categories. Under present rules described in the session, wastewater and stormwater projects each can score up to 100 points; stormwater projects have a separate ranking and EGLE has committed a minimum 5% of the fundable range for stormwater. Beauchamp summarized existing point awards: for example, projects driven by enforceable compliance schedules (NPDES permit requirements, administrative consent orders or consent judgments) receive compliance points; projects that address sanitary sewer overflows (SSOs), combined sewer overflows (CSOs) or biosolids PFAS concerns can receive public-health-related points; and stormwater projects may receive up to 45 points in the water-quality category depending on pollutant load reductions, runoff-volume reductions, BMP size and regional BMP benefits.

Stakeholder concerns raised: participants asked how stormwater projects can be funded when communities lack stormwater utilities and thus a dedicated repayment source. Beauchamp said, “They need to have a way to pay back the loan. So, not necessarily utility, but need to have a way to pay back the loan,” and acknowledged that general-fund repayment and other arrangements can raise challenges. Commenters urged giving more points to projects that address flooding and larger-scale conveyance — not only small-scale green infrastructure — and suggested EGLE consider notice-of-violation (NOV) communications as part of the compliance scoring (rather than only awarding points when matters escalate to an administrative consent order).

Nonpoint-source scoring: EGLE noted the nonpoint-source scoring framework was not updated in 2023 and currently uses a different point scale (the examples given reached into the hundreds under the present template). Beauchamp said the agency intends to update nonpoint-source scoring for fiscal year 2027 so that these projects are evaluated on comparable categories as wastewater and stormwater but with criteria tailored to nonpoint-source needs.

Process and timeline: EGLE will accept written comments through September, plans an August draft release, a September public hearing and another comment period after that hearing. Beauchamp said the goal is to finalize scoring before the Nov. 1 intent-to-apply deadline so applicants can prepare project-planning documents under the new rules.

What EGLE asked of stakeholders: attendees were invited to submit written comments by email (a link and contact were provided during the webinar), to raise hands during the live Q&A, or to use the webinar Q&A box. EGLE staff said they will post the recording and presentation slides online and distribute them to registrants.

Looking ahead: the agency also said it is reviewing its methodology for designating overburdened and significantly overburdened communities and expects draft language on that determination to be available for comment in July–August. Beauchamp encouraged stakeholders to review the overburden criteria page on EGLE’s SRF website and to provide input there as well.