About the Water Finance Center

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Mission of the Water Finance Center

The Water Finance Center is an information and technical assistance center, helping communities make informed financial decisions for water infrastructure to protect human health and the environment.

The Water Finance Center's Strategic Goals

The Water Finance Center seeks to accelerate and improve the quality of water infrastructure through:

    Goal 1: Research - Identifying financial solutions to help communities meet water infrastructure needs.

    Goal 2: Advise - Providing financial advice, support, and technical assistance.

    Goal 3: Innovate - Providing expertise and add value to the national water conversation.

    Goal 4: Network - Building relationships with partners and stakeholders.
 

Goal 1: Research
The Water Finance Center provides water infrastructure financing information and assistance to local governments:

  • Customer Assistance Program (CAPs) Compendium - Working with national associations to highlight CAPs offered by drinking water and wastewater utilities. CAPs help address affordability concerns for individual households. View the Compendium.
  • Water Finance Clearinghouse - Developing a water infrastructure financing clearinghouse to facilitate easy access to water financing sources and resources, such as reports, tools, case studies etc. to help communities make informed decisions. Explore the Water Finance Clearinghouse.
  • Effective Financing - Helping communities identify financing options for their water infrastructure projects. 
  • Small System Financing Resources - Assembling financial capacity building resources for small drinking water and wastewater systems.
     

Goal 2: Advise
The Water Finance Center provides financial guidance to communities and implementing recommendations from federal advisory groups:

  • Environmental Finance Centers (EFCs) - Working with the regional-based Environmental Finance Centers to offer education, technical assistance, training, and develop tools to meet state, local, tribal, and private sector environmental needs. Learn about the EFCs.
  • Environmental Financial Advisory Board (EFAB) - Operating under the authority of the Federal Advisory Committee Act, EFAB provides EPA with advice and recommendations on a broad range of environmental financing issues affecting EPA policies and programs. View EFAB reports.
     

Goal 3: Innovate
The Water Finance Center explores leading-edge approaches to procurement and funding solutions, and develops roadmaps that identify and support best practices:

  • Public & Private Partnerships - Exploring financing strategies of public-private and public-public partnerships in the water sector to create project profiles and models. We also offer training for local officials. Learn about Partnerships.
  • Communities in Need - Sharing best practices in funding and financing approaches to address affordability concerns. Explore creative strategies, resources, and pricing structures that address affordability.
  • Emerging Finance Models - Exploring new and emerging finance approaches that address water challenges such as: Pay for Success, Pay for Performance, performance contracting, water quality trading, and additional financing strategies.
     

Goal 4: Network
The Water Finance Center participates in activities and projects that present opportunities to address systemic issues with scalable solutions, and incorporating external feedback to ensure actions provide value to stakeholders:

  • Regional Water Finance Forums – Convening forums across the country where communities discuss challenges and share their successful water and wastewater infrastructure financing strategies. View recaps of past Water Finance Forums.

Why the Water Finance Center Was Created

The Water Finance Center was created to address the challenge of aging and inadequate water infrastructure faced by communities across the nation. Most of the nation's underground water infrastructure was built 50 or more years ago, in the post-World War II era. In some older urban areas, many water mains are a century old. The implications of deteriorating infrastructure can be felt nationwide.

The report Addressing the Challenge through Science and Innovation (PDF) (6 pp, 1.3 MB, About PDF) shows:

  • There are approximately 240,000 water main breaks per year in the U.S.
  • Approximately $2.6 billion is lost as water mains leak trillions of gallons of treated drinking water.
  • Billions of gallons of raw sewage are discharged into local surface waters from aging wastewater conveyance systems every year.

According to EPA's estimate of drinking water and wastewater infrastructure needs:

  • Over $1 trillion is needed for water infrastructure improvements over the next 20 years.

These challenges impact drinking water, wastewater, and stormwater infrastructure that strengthen local economies. The challenges of storms, droughts, and floods heighten the urgency to invest in water sector infrastructure.

Investments in water infrastructure have immense returns for communities. Clean, reliable drinking water and wastewater services bring public health and environmental benefits. Safe and clean water:

  • Fuels the economy.
  • Creates jobs.
  • Protects public health.
  • Increases quality of life.

Additional Resources

Water Infrastructure and Resiliency Finance Center

Contact Us About the Water Finance Center
Contact Us to ask a question, provide feedback, or report a problem.
Last updated on June 6, 2025