water infrastructure

USDA Rural Development is a federal agency focused on the needs of rural communities. USDA-RD offers loans, grants and loan guarantees to help create jobs and support economic development and essential services such as housing; health care; first responder services and equipment; and water, electric and communications infrastructure. It also provides technical assistance to help cities and towns undertake community empowerment programs.

Treasury’s final rule for ARPA funds becomes effective on April 1st and the first report for NEU’s quickly follows on April 30th. As an “NEU,” once a year, you are required to submit Project and Expenditure reports, which includes project, obligation, and expenditure data, project demographics, subaward data, required programmatic data, and Civil Right compliance information. The first reporting deadline for NEUs is April 30, 2022, and covers the period between March 3, 2021 and March 31, 2022.

Through the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (ARPA), the State of New Hampshire has allocated the Department of Environmental Services (NHDES) $50 million to put towards drinking water and clean water projects. NHDES is anticipating being allocated additional ARPA funding but the amount and timing is unknown right now.