Historic 2025 Water and Wastewater Wins in Florida

Following the devastation of Hurricanes Helene and Milton in 2024, the American Relief Act, 2025, was signed into law and included a Supplemental Appropriation for Hurricanes Helene and/or Milton and Hawai’i Wildfires (SAHM) for the State Revolving Fund (SRF) programs.

This one-time opportunity allotted $844 million for Drinking Water projects and $806 million for Clean Water projects in Florida. Central Florida experienced significant damages from Hurricane Milton, totaling an estimated $47 million.

Halff’s Funding Resources team, with decades of experience monitoring for new opportunities, was tracking the SAHM opportunity before a Notice of Funding Opportunity through Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP) was released to the public. Understanding the impact this historic funding could have for our clients, we began to pre-position.  

The Funding Resources team alerted the Water and Wastewater professionals to this upcoming opportunity and together decided which client projects were eligible and aligned for the funding. We worked diligently alongside Halff’s practice professionals and clients to develop outstanding, compelling applications which ultimately led us to these historic funding wins.

Overall, Halff assisted clients in obtaining more than $60 million through this program. Given the extensive need throughout Florida, the SAHM program was incredibly competitive. Yet, with pre-positioning and strong, well-developed projects, we were successful in fulfilling our mission to improve lives and communities in Central Florida. Now these communities will be able to rebuild and advance the water and wastewater facilities that serve their residents. 

We developed applications for the following municipalities: 

• City of Mount Dora – Awarded $19,166,503.00* with 100% principal forgiveness for Improvements to their WWTP #2 
• City of Edgewater – Awarded $19,166,503.00* with 100% principal forgiveness for Improvements to their WWTP 
• The City of Umatilla – Awarded $3,884,060.00 with 100% principal forgiveness for Improvements to their WTPs 
• The City of Fruitland Park – Awarded $19,278,000.00 with 50% principal forgiveness for Improvements to their WTPs (50% being a 0% interest loan) 

*$19,166,503.00 was the segment cap for the SAHM CWSRF competition.