On Wednesday, Corvias Infrastructure Solutions (CIS), the public project development arm of water and energy infrastructure service provider Corvias, announced that it has secured a new $75 million credit facility with Goldman Sachs Asset Management‘s Urban Investment Group. The financing, $10.4 million of which is already committed, will be used to finance municipal stormwater and green infrastructure programs, including a major sustainable stormwater infrastructure project in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
The investment will support Corvias’s community-based partnership with the Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District, which provides municipal water services to 1.1 million customers in the Milwaukee area, to expand the city’s water infrastructure capacity to handle 8.5 million gallons of stormwater runoff, reduce localized flooding and sewer overflows, and to address the environmental and health impacts of climate change by bringing communities into compliance with the EPA Clean Water Act.
Per Corvias, chronic flooding causes an estimated 10 trillion gallons of untreated stormwater runoff to pollute U.S. waterways, causing billions of dollars in municipal damage, the worst of which often hits under-resourced communities. Corvias Infrastructure Solutions has devised ways to address this issue sustainably by using soil and plants to capture, filter, and reduce flooding and runoff, engineering solutions that mimic natural hydrological processes.
Most of the projects funded through this credit agreement will be implemented in low-to-moderate income areas, and will “empower a significant amount” of small, local and disadvantaged business to make sustainable improvements to their stormwater infrastructure.
“This credit facility will allow for the accelerated implementation of green stormwater infrastructure, providing Corvias Infrastructure Solutions the ability to implement projects immediately in communities such as the greater Milwaukee area,” said Corvias Infrastructure Solutions Senior Vice President Shawn Kerachsky. “Thanks to the vision of Goldman Sachs, this financing will not only reduce cost risk for communities plagued by flooding and stormwater runoff, but it will also provide our partners with faster delivery of key projects.”
“Climate change has a tangible impact on underserved areas, especially with increased flooding causing pollution from sewer overflows,” said Margaret Anadu, Global Head of Sustainability and Impact at Goldman Sachs Asset Management. “We are excited to partner with Corvias to help address this by developing sustainable infrastructure solutions needed to create more environmentally and economically resilient neighborhoods. Doing so alongside a majority-diverse set of subcontractors will ensure that these efforts are truly inclusive both in their impact and execution.”
Corvias Infrastructure Solutions plans to build similar sustainable stormwater infrastructure in partnership with other municipalities nationwide. All programs financed by the facility will target 50 percent small, minority or women-owned business participation. Corvias says it already has over $250 million of additional projects in its near-term pipeline. To date, CIS has implemented more than $450 million in water infrastructure projects in the Mid-Atlantic, Great Lakes and West Coast regions.
