SRF Technical Exchange for Nonpoint Source & Source Water Protection Sign-Up Form

Purpose: In response to growing interest and need on these topics, the purpose of this technical exchange is to address challenges to greater use of the SRFs to address NPS and SWP in communities, share best practices, explore new approaches, and provide a forum for peer-to-peer learning.

Proposed Format/Structure:

Participation: Interested participants would meet regularly via Microsoft Teams and participation would be open to all interested state SRF staff and Regions.

Frequency: TBD. Meetings could be held once a month (or every other month, or quarterly) with the option to transition to a more or less frequent basis.

Organizational Structure: TBD. Volunteers would be sought to initially lead (or co-lead) the forum, and if preferred, this role could rotate over a set time interval (e.g., 12 months).

Agenda Setting: Flexible and dependent on participants’ areas of interest. Topics could be organized to highlight the use of SRFs for NPS and SWP by region (e.g., one featured EPA region per meeting) or by funding approach (e.g., sponsorship, pass-through, set-asides, etc.). Topics could also be organized by NPS subcategory (e.g., agriculture, hydromodification, DWTS/septics, watershed protection and land conservation, etc.). One regular feature could be “Bring your issues to the table” (What’s not working?) or “Bring your successes to the table” (What’s working?). Guest speakers could also be invited to share information on specific topics.

Other potential ideas to explore:

• Using SRFs to help create Watershed Financing Partnerships

• Implementing 319-eligible watershed-based plans and scaling up successful projects

• Protecting high value healthy watersheds (e.g., land conservation) and source water

•  Understanding payments for ecosystem services programs

• Setting up sub-revolving funds (e.g., agriculture, land protection)

• Streamlining processes for pairing up SRF loans with grants (e.g., USDA EQIP grants) that can be used as loan repayment sources

• Considerations for Project Priority List scoring criteria

• Considerations for reviewing/updating IUP goals and objectives (incl. long- and short-term goals)

• Marketing NPS & SWP loans and highlighting successful projects

• State regulatory limitations and work-arounds; options for statute/regulatory changes