This assistance agreement provides funding under the infrastructure investment and jobs act (IIJA) to the state of pennsylvania (PA) to implement resources and priorities to help address per- and…

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Region 3, awarded $74.556 million to the Pennsylvania Infrastructure Investment Authority (Pennvest) under the Water Infrastructure Improvements for the Nation Small and Underserved Communities Emerging Contaminants Grant Program (CFDA 66.442) on September 1, 2025. This formula grant, with a completion date of August 31, 2030, provides funding to the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania to address per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), harmful algal blooms (HABs), cyanotoxins, manganese, and other emerging drinking water contaminants. The award prioritizes assistance to small and disadvantaged communities to ensure safe and adequate water supplies.

The grant funds Pennsylvania to conduct comprehensive activities including testing to identify the presence, source, and extent of emerging contamination; planning and design activities; treatment and remediation of contaminated water systems; technical assistance; and household water quality testing programs. These activities support public water systems' compliance with the Safe Drinking Water Act, with particular emphasis on communities most in need of assistance. Pennvest will administer the award through the same processes used for the Drinking Water State Revolving Fund (DWSRF), maintaining separate management of these emerging contaminant funds while leveraging established infrastructure financing and program administration expertise.

This assistance agreement provides funding under the infrastructure investment and jobs act (IIJA) to the state of pennsylvania (PA) to implement resources and priorities to help address per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) and emerging contaminant challenges (such as but not limited to: cyanotoxins and harmful algal blooms (habs), manganese, and other emerging contaminant challenges) and target resources to communities most in need of assistance to ensure that no community is left behind with unsafe, inadequate water. PA will implement projects such as testing to identify the presence, source, and extent and any post-remediation testing of emerging contamination (PFAS, cyanotoxins and habs, manganese, and other emerging contaminants), planning and design activities to address emerging contaminants, treatment and remediation of emerging contaminants, and technical assistance with the use of this award funding. PA provided a letter of intent (LOI) to apply for this funding and described that PA department of environmental protection (padep) applied for this grant funding on behalf of the PA infrastructure investment authority (pennvest). This is a similar process to how PA applies for and administers drinking water state revolving funds (dwsrf), and this award funding will be managed separately from the dwsrf program. This information was also provided within PA's EC-SDC workplan as an appendix describing the relationship between padep and pennvest in a memorandum of understanding. Activities:funds are to carry out projects and activities needed for pwss to comply with the safe drinking water act, programs to provide household water quality testing, activities for a state to respond to a drinking water contaminants, and activities that benefit the impacted communities. The activities will address emerging contaminants in small or disadvantaged communities, including but not limited to research and testing; planning and design; treatment; source water activities; storage; water system restructuring; providing households access to drinking water services; technical assistance; outreach and education; and workforce or training support to public water systems (pwss) in addressing emerging contaminants. Subrecipient:PA infrastructure investment authority (pennvest) has identified approximately 200 public water systems as potential subawards.outcomes:anticipated deliverables include special sampling, data collection and analysis for emerging contaminants, facilitating planning and design work at pwss with PFAS, cyanotoxin and habs, manganese, or other emerging contaminant levels requiring action. Priority is anticipated to be given to those with the highest concentrations and meeting small and disadvantaged community criteria and will involve PA working with eligible pwss and the communities they serve to determine an appropriate remediation or mitigation strategy. Expected outcomes include focusing specifically on small and disadvantaged communities and advancing PA's goal of reducing exposures to harmful substances and creating better health outcomes. Increased technical assistance is expected to ensure the protection of public health and safeguarding the environment. Increased community engagement, trust, and public awareness about emerging contaminants among small and disadvantaged communities is expected. Overall, this program will result in a reduced number of pwss serving water with PFAS or other emerging contaminants. Intended beneficiaries include at least 170 small systems, all serving populations under 10,000 and totaling nearly 428,000 consumers that are small or disadvantaged and have already exceeded EPA PFAS MCL levels. The number of systems and total population is likely to increase following systems performing more monitoring for additional PFAS species required by EPA. PA has also identified at least 36 small systems, totaling nearly 22,000 consumers that are small or disadvantaged and that h