Small, Underserved, and Disadvantaged Communities (SUDC) Grant

The SUDC grant aims to help small, underserved, and disadvantaged water systems fund projects primarily for planning and design. In some instances, SUDC can fund construction projects; however, these must be single, complete projects, and the SUDC funding must cover the entire project. SUDC grant projects must either contribute to bringing the water system back into compliance with SDWA standards or facilitate drinking water services to residents who currently do not have drinking water access.

The goals and priorities of the SUDC program are as follows:

• To Provide Equitable Funding: The funds will be used directly to benefit disadvantaged and small or underserved communities, as defined in the eligibilities and
• To Provide Water Quality Improvements: Projects should prioritize enhancing drinking water quality within the community water system by addressing SDWA violations or
•  To Allow Access Expansion: Projects should focus on providing drinking water services to residents without access to safe drinking water.
   

Eligible grant entities will complete a grant application within SWIG’s Grants Management System (GMS). The grant application will establish the items needed for a complete application. All grant applications must be submitted by the announced deadline.

The Grant Manual contains additional information and guidance for grant applicants and partners. Other useful information may include:

• SUDC Grant Manual
• Overview of Clean Water State Revolving Fund Eligibilities
• Green Infrastructure EPA
   

Eligible grant applicants are public drinking water systems, including but not limited to municipal systems, county systems, utility districts, and water authorities. Grant applicants must meet the EPA’s definition of underserved and qualify as either small or disadvantaged when using the thresholds provided by the State of Tennessee.

Grant applicants are responsible for managing the grant contract scopes of services, providing grant deliverables, and providing progress updates as established in the grant contract. SWIG is responsible for monitoring and overseeing activities the grantees (subrecipients) and their agents perform. For additional information about oversight, monitoring, and progress update submittal, see the Funding Conditions section of this grant manual.
 

The SUDC grant program is designed for public drinking water systems. Eligible projects must focus on either bringing the water system back into compliance with SDWA standards or facilitating drinking water services to current residents who currently do not have drinking water access.

MUST BE

• The EPA defines an "underserved” community as having no household drinking water or wastewater services OR being served by a public water system that violates or exceeds any maximum contaminant level, treatment technique, or action level.
  AND EITHER
• TDEC SWIG defines a "disadvantaged” community as a community that receives a score of 50 points or fewer in the 2024 Ability to Pay Index (ATPI).
  OR
  • The State of Tennessee defines a “small” or “rural” community as a community with a population of 10,000 or less.

Below are examples of eligible project activities. This list is not meant to be exhaustive, and other eligible projects may be consistent with the SUDC authorizing statute that is not explicitly mentioned in this document. Before grant applicants can propose the activities listed below, they must fit the definition of an underserved community and reach the qualifying threshold to be a disadvantaged or small community.

The following activities are examples of eligible SUDC projects:

• Treatment: Eligible projects include planning, design, and construction for new facilities or specific facility components. This also covers upgrades, rehabilitation, or replacement of existing facilities or sections of facilities. Point-of-access or point-of-use treatment devices (such as filters) are only eligible if they meet approved treatment technology standards and are owned and maintained by the public water system. Construction must be fully funded by this SUDC grant for it to be considered.
• Transmission and Distribution: Eligible projects include planning, design, or construction to install, replace, or rehabilitate drinking water infrastructure. These efforts aim to improve water pressure to safe levels and prevent contamination from non-potable liquids entering the system through leaks or pipe breaks. TDEC also allows for the planning and design of new water main extensions to serve existing residents who currently lack access to a safe potable water supply. To qualify for a water main extension, communities must provide documentation showing that residents rely on unsafe drinking water. Construction must be fully funded by this SUDC grant for it to be considered.
• Source: Projects aimed at planning, designing, and constructing infrastructure to identify or develop a new drinking water source to replace a contaminated one are eligible. This includes the construction of new drinking water intakes, such as raw water intakes, wells, or other infrastructure required to transport raw water into the treatment plant or distribution system. Construction must be fully funded by this SUDC grant for it to be considered.
• Storage: Eligible projects may include planning, design, and/or construction to replace or rehab existing storage structures to ensure compliance and protect public health. Construction must be fully funded by this SUDC grant for it to be considered.
• Consolidation: Eligible projects include purchasing a water system or interconnecting multiple systems to address and resolve noncompliance with the SDWA.

Applicants can refer to the Drinking Water State Revolving Fund eligibility handbook and the SUDC Implementation Document for further discussion on eligible activities. Before an entity begins designing a project for SUDC, it must ensure that it meets the minimum framework elements of EPA’s SUDC guide. This SUDC guide outlines basic eligibilities and desired outcomes for proposed SUDC projects.
 

Funding

The maximum grant award for this SUDC grant is $400,000 per award. The total proposal budget comprises the grant award (requested allocation) and the applicant's matching funding (match). Match is required for all grants. For this SUDC grant, recipients must provide a match of 15% of the grant award. Therefore, the applicant can receive 100% of the maximum grant award, and the match will be included as an addition to the award. For instance, if an entity receives the maximum award of $400,000, the entity will provide $60,000 in matching funds, which brings the total proposal budget to $460,000. Match will be applied to the total project budget for each reimbursement request. Please see the budget calculation examples and budget scenarios below.

Matching

A 15% Match is required for every SUDC grant competitive proposal.

Match may consist of:

• Cash; SRF loans, bonds, cash reserves, public/private partnerships
• In-kind; goods or services, labor, equipment services, material. In-kind contributions must be documented with an individual accountability report. Proposals may not include more than 10% attributed to unskilled labor, that which requires no previous experience or consists of routine tasks for which little training is required (level 1 work, as defined by the Bureau of Labor Statistics)

The Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation (TDEC) is pleased to announce the upcoming Lead Services Line Inventory (LSLI) guidance sessions. These sessions will cover the grant eligibility, deliverable expectations, and a guided walkthrough of the application process. The dates and times for these webinars will be announced at a later date.  

Attendees may participate virtually via webinar. 

Upcoming Workshop schedule: 

Workshop #1: 

To be announced  

Workshop #2: 

To be announced