JEFFERSON CITY – The Missouri Department of Natural Resources is offering competitive water infrastructure grants for communities to complete drinking water, wastewater and stormwater infrastructure projects as well as lead service line inventories. These grant opportunities are made available through American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) State Fiscal Recovery Funds.
The notice of funding opportunity describes grant rules, guidelines and eligibility requirements for each funding program, including scoring criteria, award limits, applicants, costs, application instructions, cost-share information and grant terms and conditions. The notice of funding opportunity is located at Required Forms & Program Application Instructions – ARPA (mo.gov). The department strongly encourages applicants to read this document before completing an application.
Applications will be accepted from 2 p.m. May 16 until 5 p.m. July 14. The department will score applications based on financial need, engineering capability and necessity of the project. Though not required, communities with a completed engineering report will receive preference in the scoring process. A local match must be provided to be eligible for funding. Successful and unsuccessful applicants will be notified once all applications are scored by mid-October.
Eligible applicants include incorporated municipalities, public water or sewer districts, quasi-governmental agencies, Joint Municipal Utility Commissions and privately owned utilities and nonprofit organizations whose sole purpose is to provide drinking water or wastewater service. Applicants will submit applications through an online web portal at moarpa.mo.gov.
For more information about state ARPA funding or the application process, please contact the department’s Financial Assistance Center at DNR.ARPA@dnr.mo.gov or 573-751-1192.
To learn more about using ARPA funds for water infrastructure, visit Missouri’s Local Fiscal Recovery Fund Toolkit for Water, Wastewater and Stormwater at oa2.mo.gov/ARPAtoolkits/water-infrastructure.