The Environmental Finance Center in Action: Washington Communities

This blog is part of a series from the US Water Alliance’s Environmental Finance Center Team highlighting technical assistance projects and successes in communities across the country through RealWaterTA. This free, federally funded program helps communities improve their drinking water, wastewater, and stormwater infrastructure; achieve regulatory compliance; and secure federal funding.  

Part 1: Completed Projects

Community: Chehalis, Washington

Technical assistance offered: Water reclamation feasibility study

Background
Chehalis, Washington is growing quickly, and local leaders are thinking ahead about how to ensure the community’s water infrastructure can keep pace. In late 2023, the Alliance’s Environmental Finance Center began working with the South Chehalis Urban Growth Area Design (SCUD) Working Group, an interdisciplinary group of public agencies focused on promoting coordinated and sustainable growth in and around South Chehalis. The SCUD Working Group wanted to study the feasibility of using reclaimed water – former wastewater that has been treated and can be safely reused for non-drinking purposes. Using reclaimed water could help extend the capacity and longevity of the City’s existing water system.  

Plan of Action
The Alliance worked with the SCUD Working Group to develop the water reclamation feasibility study scope and brought in Stantec to conduct the analysis.  

Completed in early 2026, the study included a holistic cost-benefit analysis of reclaimed water, identified potential sites and users, and evaluated potential treatment, operations, and maintenance needs.  

Outcome 
Ultimately, the study found that, at this time, the reclaimed water demand from existing users was not sufficient to financially support the infrastructure costs associated with its implementation. However, the study provided valuable insight. It identified the level of reclaimed water demand that would be financially sustainable, providing the SCUD Working Group with a clear understanding of the conditions needed to revisit this idea in the future. As South Chehalis continues to grow, local leaders now have a framework for evaluating reclaimed water uses if industrial or municipal water demand reaches a sustainable level.

Community: Seattle, Washington

Technical assistance offered: Funding and finance support focused on community benefits

Background
The South Park neighborhood of Seattle is situated along the Duwamish River. This area is highly industrial and is adjacent to a Superfund site. The neighborhood faces flooding and water quality challenges, particularly during heavy rain and high tide events. Multiple community partners and city agencies were already working collectively to address these challenges, but lacked a coordinated strategy for securing funding and making progress to deliver community benefits.  

Plan of Action
The Alliance’s Environmental Finance Center worked with Seattle Public Utilities (SPU) to develop a strategy for financing projects that could improve surface water quality and reduce flooding in South Park, while also creating community benefits, such as economic opportunity and new park space.  

The Alliance partnered with Jacobs to research potential funding sources to support these efforts and develop a comprehensive funding matrix—an Excel-based tool that can be modified and updated based on evolving project priorities. Jacobs initiated work in August 2024 and after collaborating with SPU, completed and delivered the final funding matrix in August 2025.  

The matrix included a detailed comparison of 32 grant and loan opportunities, assessed the eligibility of planned Duwamish Valley projects for each funding source, identified potential partners for each project, and outlined alternative funding strategies.  Jacobs also developed a Matrix 101 presentation, which SPU staff can use to train new staff on the tool moving forward. 

Outcome
SPU now has a coordinated funding strategy to support revitalization efforts in South Park and, as a result of this work, has already begun building a funding application plan. SPU staff have also used this plan to onboard a new staff member who will lead this effort, and they have been able to replicate this approach in other program areas.  

These experiences reinforced the capacity-building benefits of technical assistance for SPU: the matrix and funding strategy are not standalone deliverables applied to a singular project. Instead, they are being applied in other contexts and shared with other staff. Similarly, this story illustrates a clear lesson learned that can be applied to other communities: by establishing a funding strategy and plan, projects can be prioritized using clear criteria, and move from planning to implementation at a faster rate. 

 

Part 2: Projects Underway

Community: Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe

Technical assistance offered: Comprehensive water system plan

Background
The Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe is sovereign, federally recognized Indian nation located on the north coast of the Olympic Peninsula, just outside of Port Angeles, Washington. The Tribal Utility Department manages two water systems on the reservation: the Elwha Heights and Lower Elwha Valley systems. According to the Tribe, reservoir levels serving the Lower Elwha Valley system drop significantly during peak summer conditions. At the same time, the Tribe anticipates the reservation population will grow by 12 to 20 percent in coming years, increasing the need for long-term infrastructure planning.  

Plan of Action
To help the Tribe plan for its future water needs, the US Water Alliance’s Environmental Finance Center partnered with Engineers Without Borders-USA (EWB-USA) to develop a Comprehensive Water System Plan.  

Through EWB-USA’s technical assistance model, communities are connected with a team of qualified professional engineer volunteers who provides technical engineering support at no cost. For this project, EWB-USA connected the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe with a dedicated team of volunteer engineers from the EWB Puget Sound Professional Chapter.  

In June 2025, the volunteer engineering team joined Alliance staff and EWB-USA for a tour of the Tribe’s water infrastructure with Tribe Utility Department staff. The site visit provided an opportunity to collect essential water system data, better understand local infrastructure needs, and build relationships with Tribal staff. Since then, the Tribe has signed an Engineering Services Agreement, and the volunteer engineering team has initiated work on developing the Comprehensive Water System Plan, which is expected to be completed by the end of 2026.  

The plan will include a hydraulic model, an updated GIS map for the Tribe’s future use, an asset inventory, and a list of future Capital Infrastructure Planning (CIP) projects to consider. The resources within the plan will provide a roadmap for the Tribe’s water infrastructure as the community grows.  While working on this project, volunteer engineers have also been working alongside the Indian Health Service to identify infrastructure needs that should be included in upcoming funding applications. 

Washington Summary

These communities demonstrate how technical assistance can support complex water challenges – from helping local leaders determine when a project is financially viable, to turning a collection of community priorities into a coordinated strategy. In these cases, the Alliance—along with our network of partners—provided community leaders with the tools and information they need to make informed decisions. 

Stay tuned for more posts from the Environmental Finance Center coming soon.