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WIFIA (Water Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act of 2014) is EPA's low-interest federal credit program for large water, wastewater and stormwater infrastructure projects; SWIFIA is the parallel state-level window administered through state infrastructure financing authorities. On 20 November 2025 EPA opened its 9th WIFIA lending round — USD 6.5 billion in new WIFIA capacity plus USD 550 million in SWIFIA capacity, USD 7.05 billion combined — and concurrently announced five newly approved WIFIA loans:
upgrades and a new water-reclamation facility for industrial/irrigation reuse.
collection-system expansion and water-main rehabilitation (city's second WIFIA loan; third WIFIA-family loan overall, USD 385m cumulative).
an aquifer to Lake Michigan, plus distribution upgrades to cut water loss.
a rural community.
rehabilitation and stormwater drainage to cut pipeline failures/water loss.
Global Trade Alert classifies each of the five loans individually as "public procurement localisation" because WIFIA-financed construction is subject to American Iron and Steel (AIS) domestic-content requirements (iron, steel and manufactured products used in the funded work must be produced in the US) — the same standing statutory condition already tracked on this register for DWSRF/IIJA lead-service-line funding (2025-11-25-us-epa-dwsrf-lead-service-line-funding). The EPA press release itself focuses on funding mechanics and loan terms and does not separately restate the AIS condition.
This filing consolidates all five GTA-logged interventions from the same 20 November 2025 EPA announcement (state-act 95535, 95536, 95537, 95538, 95539) into one action rather than five near-identical filings, consistent with the register's dedup rule.
procurement toward US-manufactured pipe, valves and treatment-plant construction materials under AIS domestic-content rules, at the expense of non-US suppliers of the same inputs.
continued federal appetite for water-infrastructure credit despite broader IIJA-era budget pressure; watch whether FY2026 appropriations sustain WIFIA's credit-subsidy budget authority.
the DWSRF lead-service-line action, Canada's Buy Canadian framework and Section 232 bus/MHDV-parts action already on the register — not sector-specific to strategic/critical materials.
Joliet Lake Michigan transition) involve specialty materials or equipment sourced from non-US suppliers that could trigger AIS waiver requests.
newly opened WIFIA/SWIFIA capacity beyond the five loans named in the 20 November announcement.