The Rural Utilities Service (RUS or Agency), a Rural Development (RD) mission area of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), announces acceptance of applications under the Rural Decentralized Water Systems (DWS) program for Fiscal Year (FY) 2025.
Donor Name: Rural Utilities Service
State: All States
County: All Counties
Type of Grant: Grant
Deadline: 03/03/2025
Size of the Grant: More than $1 million
Grant Duration: 1 year
Details:
These grant funds will be awarded to qualified applicants to create a revolving fund and to issue sub-grants to finance the costs of household water well systems and individually owned decentralized wastewater systems. Projects should consider energy efficiency, resiliency, and water reuse technologies.
Purpose of the Program
Access to safe and reliable water and wastewater systems is vital to both human health and economic development. Due to a variety of factors, it is not always feasible to have public water or wastewater services run to each residence. In those instances, individual well water and septic systems may be the most technical and financially feasible means of providing access to safe and reliable water and wastewater services. The DWS program was established to help individuals with low to moderate incomes finance the costs of household water well systems and individually owned decentralized wastewater systems that they own or will own.
Through the DWS program, private non-profit organizations will receive grant funds to establish lending programs that will provide water well and wastewater system loans and sub-grants to individuals. Considerations should be given to technology that supports energy efficiency, resiliency, and water reuse. The individuals, as loan or grant recipients, may use the funds to construct, refurbish, and service their household water well or decentralized wastewater systems up to the point of entry to the residence. In certain circumstances where ground well water contamination is documented, funding may be used to complete work beyond the point of entry to the residence. A loan may not exceed $15,000 and will have a term up to 20 years at a one percent annual interest rate. Where necessary, up to 50 percent of the awarded funds may be used as grant. Subgrants can be used to help reduce the cost to construct, refurbish, rehabilitate or replace individually owned decentralized water well and wastewater systems.
Funding Information
This program is anticipated to have approximately $5,000,000 available for FY 2025.
Grant Period
October 1, 2025, to September 30, 2026.
Eligibility Criteria
- The applicant must be a private organization.
- The applicant must be organized as a non-profit organization.
- The applicant must have legal capacity and lawful authority to perform the obligations of a grant recipient under this part. Example 1: If the organization is incorporated as a non-profit corporation, it must have corporate authority under state law and its corporate charter to engage in the practice of making loans to individuals. Example 2: if the organization is an unincorporated association, state law may prevent the organization from entering into binding contracts, such as a grant agreement.
- The applicant must have sufficient expertise and experience in lending and in promoting the safe and productive use of individually-owned decentralized water systems and ground water to assure the likelihood that the objectives of this part can be achieved.
For more information, visit Grants.gov.
