A Southern California water authority will receive a $251 million federal loan to build an advanced water purification facility designed to create a local drinking water supply and reduce reliance on imported water.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced the Water Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act (WIFIA) loan Sept. 28 for the Las Virgenes-Triunfo Public Financing Authority, which serves communities in Los Angeles and Ventura counties.
The financing will support the authority’s Pure Water Project, a water reuse initiative intended to provide a drought-resistant supply for approximately 105,000 customers.
The project will construct an advanced water purification facility to treat recycled water from western Los Angeles and eastern Ventura counties. The resulting water will provide the Las Virgenes-Conejo region with a new locally controlled source of drinking water, according to EPA.
The project is intended to reduce the region’s dependence on imported water while improving its ability to withstand droughts, wildfires, emergencies and interruptions to outside water supplies.
The authority is a partnership between Las Virgenes Municipal Water District and Triunfo Water & Sanitation District. Its service area encompasses communities in southeastern Ventura County and western Los Angeles County.
The project will also reduce demand for water imported from Northern California, potentially leaving more of that supply available for agricultural and other uses elsewhere in the state, according to EPA.
The $251 million loan is part of the financing package for the Pure Water Project rather than a grant. EPA estimates the terms available through WIFIA will save the authority $13.6 million over the life of the loan.
WIFIA financing allows borrowers to defer principal payments for several years after substantial completion of construction and provides long repayment periods and competitive interest rates.
EPA Assistant Administrator for Water Jess Kramer said the project aligns with the agency’s Water Reuse Action Plan 2.0, which was launched in April to expand the use of recycled water for drinking water supplies, industry, energy and other purposes.
Congress established the WIFIA program in 2014 to provide long-term federal credit assistance for major drinking water, wastewater and stormwater projects. EPA issued the program’s first loan in 2018.
Since then, EPA says it has announced $24 billion in WIFIA financing for water infrastructure projects nationwide, supporting projects associated with more than 175,000 jobs.
The agency currently has as much as $6.5 billion in WIFIA financing available for water systems and another $550 million available for state infrastructure financing authorities.
Photo by Ron Lach from Pexels
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