Senate committee hears DEC overview of water funding, SRF prioritization and housing links

The Vermont Senate Committee on Institutions and Information Technology on Thursday, Feb. 6 heard a briefing from Department of Environmental Conservation officials on how water and wastewater projects are funded and prioritized in the capital bill and state revolving funds.

The department’s deputy commissioner, Neil Kammin, and Eric Blatt, director of engineering in the Water Investment Division, told the committee that two federal and state revolving loan funds — the Clean Water State Revolving Fund (SRF) for wastewater and stormwater and the Drinking Water SRF for public water systems — remain the primary financing tools, supplemented by one-time state capital, American Rescue Plan Act dollars, and federal programs such as the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (IIJA/BIL).

Why it matters: Kammin said water and wastewater funding “determines in many cases where development goes,” and committee members were told that funding decisions affect municipalities’ ability to support housing and new development. The department emphasized that federal mandates, including total maximum daily loads (TMDLs) under the Clean Water Act for Lake Champlain and Lake Memphremagog, drive much of the state’s clean-water spending.

Kammin described three broad categories of infrastructure the department funds: wastewater…