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MassDEP offers rolling ECSDC help, engineering design aid and cybersecurity grants for small water systems
Summary
MassDEP’s drinking water team described noncompetitive ECSDC funding, an engineering/design plan grant backed by Clean Water Trust funds, and a $2M Cybersecurity Improvement Grant for small systems (up to $50K/system).
MassDEP’s drinking water program used the webinar to explain targeted help for small and disadvantaged public water systems.
"Our grant provides grant funding to water systems or communities to plan, design, and construct long term solutions to address emerging contaminants, including PFAS and manganese," said Andrew Dresco, program coordinator for the ECSDC grant. He said eligible systems include community water systems in the Clean Water Trust disadvantaged community program and systems serving fewer than 10,000 people that lack capacity to incur project debt. The ECSDC program is noncompetitive, has no match requirement, and uses a needs-assessment intake as the first step.
Janine Bishop outlined an engineering and design plan grant developed with an initial $500,000 from the Clean Water Trust to help small disadvantaged systems obtain engineering readiness; MassDEP posted an RFQ and selected two firms (CEI and Fassett O'Neil) to provide services. The program is on hold until staff confirm remaining funds but the bureau plans to seek additional Clean Water Trust funding next spring.
Gufran Bridal described the Cybersecurity Improvement Grant for drinking water systems, saying MassDEP allocated $2 million to the program and that eligible small systems may be awarded up to $50,000 per system for activities such as hardware/software upgrades, staff training, network segmentation, and incident response planning. Bridal said about 70% of the cybersecurity allocation has been spent and remaining funds are available on a first-come, first-served basis.
MassDEP staff urged affected systems to complete needs-assessment surveys, reach out to program coordinators, and consider engineering readiness as a precursor to SRF or other funding.
