All State Revolving Fund (SRF) applicants must complete an Overburdened and Significantly Overburdened Survey to determine eligibility and/or determine a median annual household for scoring tie-breakers. The following instructions detail how to fill out the survey and how to determine the inputs required. The survey is designed to guide the applicant through the process and provide immediate, preliminary feedback of the results. The only exception are regional systems with other regional systems who send flows to them as well. This is rare and will be handled on a case-by-case basis as in prior fiscal years. For regional systems with this situation, or for any other questions on the completion of the survey, please contact Mark Conradi at ConradiM@Michigan.gov.
You can access the Overburdened and Significantly Overburdened Survey, along with all the information, rules, and the most recent census and tax data on EGLE’s SRF Affordability Criteria webpage. The information in the MAHI and taxable value per capita table will be used to make all Fiscal Year 2027 (FY27) determinations.
If the applicant’s MAHI or blended MAHI is equal to or above the 80% of the state average - $58,300 for FY27 – they cannot be determined overburdened or significantly overburdened for FY27 funding.
This guidance was last updated on: 02/27/2026
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When an applicant completed an FY27 ITA application they were sent a confirmation email with a unique application number in the following format: XXX-XXXX. Enter this number into the box and/or scroll down and select it. (Note: If a system has submitted multiple ITAs, this survey will need to be completed for each unique ITA application). When the ITA number is entered it will automatically fill in the following entries:
If this information is incorrect, it means the wrong ITA application number was entered. Correct the number and ensure the information matches the proposed project before moving on. Ask your project manager if you do not have the ITA application number.
Once the applicant number has been entered the “Overburdened Survey Information - Person Completing Form on Behalf of Applicant” section will appear below it. Often an engineer or financial consultant will fill out the overburdened survey for the applicant. This section allows the person filling out the form to enter:
When the survey is completed, the results will be emailed to the contact provided with the ITA application AND the additional contact if they are different from the ITA.
Applicants will be directed to the next page based on how they answer the questions on page one. If at any point the applicant needs to change an entry hit the “Back” button on the bottom left of the page. Hit the “Next” button to return to the former page. Any information that was entered previously should still be there. The survey includes instructions depending on what information is required.
Whether an applicant is a regional system or not the survey will automatically calculate if any of the automatic qualifiers apply. If so, the survey will stop and provide a “Next” button to go to the signature/submittal page. Complete the signature page and the survey is complete and EGLE will have a MAHI to use for tie-breaking purposes.
If the applicant does not automatically qualify, AND their MAHI/Blended MAHI is below the state average for FY27 projects ($58,300), additional information will need to be entered and page 2 will expand downward to allow entry. The additional information needed is:
These entries follow the same rules as prior years and are defined in section below.
If the survey is not responding as expected or the applicant is having trouble changing information, refresh the webpage and reenter the data before hitting submit.
For determinations made using anticipated debt (i.e., determinations where the change in loan amount will change the applicant status from overburdened to not or vice versa), a final determination will be made based upon the final LOAN amount after bids/project scope is finalized and not the anticipated amount provided on this form. This amount is provided in the email with the preliminary results and is called: SRF Loan Minimum to Maintain or Gain Overburdened Status. If the number is 0, the amount of the anticipated loan will not change the calculated results. If a number is provided, the anticipated loan needs to be at least that large for the applicant to qualify as overburdened.
The definition of overburdened and significantly overburdened communities first requires “(1.) Users served by a proposed drinking water project, sewage treatment works project, or storm water treatment project are directly assessed for the costs of construction.” That means that the calculations need to be based on who is paying for the proposed SRF loan and not only the location of the work being done for the project.
For systems that serve more than one municipal entity a blended MAHI and taxable value per capita calculation must be completed. Page 2 of the worksheet includes an “add record” button for a system to individually add all the municipalities (cities, townships, and/or villages) and the percentage of flow they provide to the system. The flow percentages should be based on the most recent data available. Type a municipality in the “Municipality Name” box and choose it from the dropdown and add a percentage following the instructions in the survey. Once the municipality has been added the MAHI and TVPC will be automatically filled in and the user can hit the plus button to add the next municipality.
The reason flow is used is because most systems add debt costs to customers’ bills and those are determined by flow. In rare cases there might be municipal agreements that vary slightly from this method and those will require the applicant to contact EGLE and provide the data separate from this survey. EGLE will take each municipality’s MAHI and taxable value per capita and multiply it by the percentage of flow and then add them all together to come up with the blended number to be used in the determination, for example:
The same formula will be repeated swapping out taxable value per capita for MAHI to determine a blended taxable value per capita.
The most recent census and tax data are available in a searchable table on EGLE’s Affordability Criteria webpage. This table has been loaded into the survey and will be used to make all FY27 determinations.
If the blended MAHI is equal to or above $58,300 the project cannot qualify for overburdened or significantly overburdened status and the Survey will indicate the system does not qualify.
The FY27 numbers have been populated in the survey and will autofill when a municipality is entered.
Fill in the total amount of the proposed loan for the project requesting State Revolving Loan financing in FY27 ONLY.
EGLE will amortize this amount to determine a yearly cost to the applicant. In FY27 a 3% rate will be used for all applicants for this calculation.
Note that this loan amount is an estimate and often changes after project plans are submitted and bids come in. EGLE will run this determination again prior to finalizing the Project Priority List (PPL). Changes in the loan amount can sometimes change an applicant’s status from overburdened to not or vice versa if the calculation moves the resulting annual cost over or under 1.5% MAHI threshold.
Thus, if a system is determined to be overburdened or not based on annual user costs being greater than 1.5% of system’s MAHI vs being determined overburdened by MAHI or state taxable value per capita alone, a loan amount will be provided to the applicant in their final determination that provides the cutoff loan value to either gain or lose overburdened status.
Fill in the yearly total of any current debt payments for the system. If coming in for a CWSRF project only include debt payments for the wastewater system and if coming in for a DWSRF project only include debt payments for the drinking water system.
In a regional system the additional debt payments of connected systems may be added if the connected systems are included in the blended MAHI and taxable value per capita calculations and there is no double-counting. For example, if a regional treatment system is coming in for the loan, a connected collection system could add any additional annual debt costs that the collection system passes onto its customers after paying all debt and expenses to the regional treatment system. This is to account for the fact that the MAHI and state taxable values are being blended so the annual debt payments of the regional system can be blended as well to determine the average user cost of the regional system.
As with the annul debt payments, the amount listed here should include only wastewater OM&R for CWSRF loans and only drinking water OM&R for DWSRF loans. If the accounting is combined split the costs as accurately as possible.
The OM&R costs should reflect all annual expenses for the system that are recovered annually through rates. This means that if a community makes an annual contribution of $50,000 a year to a capital improvement fund, they could add that number to the yearly OM&R costs. If they have accumulated
$250,000 in that account and plan on using all in the calendar year they are applying for the loan, they cannot claim that amount as it is not a yearly expense; only $50,000 is. This is also true for depreciation expenses with no cash value or yearly contribution. They cannot be included.
In a regional system the additional OM&R expenses of connected systems may be added if the connected systems are included in the blended MAHI and taxable value per capita calculations, there is no double-counting, and the expenses follow the same OM&R rules listed above. For example, if a regional treatment system is coming in for the loan, a connected collection system could add any additional annual OM&R costs that the collection system passes onto its customers after paying all debt and expenses to the regional treatment system. This is to account for the fact that the MAHI and state taxable values are being blended so the annual OM&R expenses of the regional system can be blended as well to determine the average user cost of the regional system.
REUs refer to the number of standard household hookups in a system. In a bedroom community, with little to no commercial or industrial customers, this number is clear. However, most systems have a combination of customer types. The purpose of this form is to determine the average bill for a typical residential customer to determine if the water or sewer bill is high enough to pose a burden on the ratepayer.
There are two standard ways of determining REUs: meter size and average flow.
To determine the number of REUs in a system take all the systems’ meters and convert them down to ⅝-inch or ¾-inch (whichever is the system’s standard residential size). Use the capacity of the pipe to convert down (e.g., a 2-inch meter would be equivalent to about 8, ⅝-inch meters, a 4-inch meter would be equivalent to about 25, ⅝-inch meters, etc.). The resulting number of equivalent ⅝-inch or ¾-inch meters would be the number of REUs in the system. Note: When using this method, a meter size cannot equal less than 1 REU. If a community has a newer standard of ¾-inch meter connections but still has ⅝-inch connections in their systems, both the ¾-inch and ⅝-inch must be counted a 1 REU.
The average flow method requires the system to determine the average yearly flow for a typical residential household (i.e., a ⅝-inch or ¾-inch connection). The system takes the most recent yearly flow data of the entire system and divides by the average household usage number to come up with the number of REUs.
EGLE will look at the numbers provided and may have questions based on the population size vs number of REUs. EGLE will reach out and ask to see the calculations in some instances.
A preliminary determination will be emailed to the applicant contact and the contact information of the person who filled out the survey immediately after the survey has been submitted. The first page of the preliminary survey results will contain all the information on the results. The following page(s) break down the information that was provided to EGLE.
The applicant’s preliminary findings using the Overburdened and Significantly Overburdened Determination Survey are not official until they have been reviewed by EGLE as discrepancies and/or questions about some of the numbers may arise. If applicants have applied for overburdened or significantly overburdened status in prior fiscal years, the numbers in the survey (i.e., breakdown of municipalities and their flow amounts, annual payments on existing debt, total OM&R, and REUs) will be compared to check for discrepancies as most of these numbers should be similar year to year. EGLE will contact applicants individually if inconsistencies are found.
Applicants must apply using the Overburdened and Significantly Overburdened Survey. The only exception are regional systems with other regional systems who send flows to them as well. This is rare and will be handled on a case-by-case basis as in prior fiscal years. For regional systems with this situation an excel template will be provided upon request to apply for overburdened or significantly overburdened status.
