Funding Opportunity

Water Quality Improvement Fund

Our Grants and Loans unit provides financial resources to public water systems, wastewater permittees, and nonpoint source recipients. One source is the Water Quality Improvement Fund (WQIF), which uses the funds from civil penalties from water quality violations to help communities improve their water quality. 

When awarding WQIF grants, we prioritize small and economically challenged communities that might struggle to fund needed projects.

2019-2020 WQIF grants

In August 2019, we received 12 applications for stormwater and wastewater projects. Ten of these received funding, for a total of $1,080,000. More information is detailed in the  2019-2020 award release. 

Project categories

WQIF grants can be used for many different kinds of projects, but they must fall into one
of three categories:

• Stormwater management training
• Projects that improve water quality and address a water quality violation
• Planning and/or construction of stormwater or wastewater improvement projects

Examples

• The Town of Vona received $24,600 to develop a stormwater master plan, which they need to pursue funding for construction projects to mitigate long standing flooding problems. 
• Pagosa Springs Sanitation General Improvement District received $156,024 for a SCADA monitoring system with automatic power backup, which should prevent the kinds of spills that their old communications system failed to.

Eligibility

Are you eligible to apply for a WQIF grant? You are eligible if your project meets one of the three categories above, AND you are applying as the following:

• Government agency
• Publicly owned water system
• Private not-for-profit public water system
• Not-for-profit watershed group
• Not-for-profit stormwater program administrator
• Not-for-profit training providers
• Private landowner impacted by a water quality violation

When can you apply?

The request for applications typically runs annually during late summer. 2020 grants have been awarded, but subscribe to AquaTalk for notification of the 2021 grant cycle. 

You can find information about past WQIF Requests for applications on the WQIF webpage. There is also an interactive map showing the location of penalties that are put into the fund. 

Questions? 

cdphe_grantsandloans@state.co.us


➽ Randi Johnson-Hufford, grants and loans