Affordability and Planning Grant

Purpose: EGLE's Affordability and Planning (AP) Grant, part of the MI Clean Water Plan, supports planning and affordability efforts that improve the sustainability of drinking water infrastructure and ensure access to healthy, affordable drinking water for Michigan residents. Project eligibility: Funding is limited to activities that improve consumer affordability and/or drinking water quality, such as developing and implementing income-based water rate structures; planning for regionalization, collaboration, or consolidation of water systems (including joining a regional authority, interconnections, or shared services and bulk purchasing); distribution system leak detection studies and plans for systems that purchase water; preparing or updating planning, engineering, design, legal, or application materials to better position projects for Drinking Water SRF funding; planning costs to construct sewer laterals to connect low income households with failing septic systems to public sewer; and planning costs to construct service lines to connect low income households with failing or contaminated private wells to an available community water system. Additional applicant criteria and priorities: Eligible applicants are Michigan community water supplies and local units of government (counties, townships, cities, villages, and others). For household connection projects, low income is defined as below 200 percent of the federal poverty level and must be verified by the municipality. Scoring prioritizes the quality and outcomes of the plan, the population served (with preference for lower income or lower taxable value communities), and regional partnership/collaboration/consolidation; demonstrated match can receive extra points but is not required. Application process: Applicants complete the Affordability and Planning Grants Application (EQP1063) and submit it with a Project Workplan and Project Cost Detail that describe scope, need, purpose/benefit, population served, community impact, deliverables, target dates, detailed budget, and estimated return on investment. Submit by email to EGLE-CentralGrants@Michigan.gov. EGLE may request clarifications or adjust award amounts; proposals are public records. Successful applicants execute a standard grant agreement. Grants are reimbursement-based. Timeline: applications due 02/19/2024, awards by 04/01/2024, work completed by 06/01/2025.