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Most financial assistance for septic systems is not directly available to individual property owners, but is administered through local governments.

Loans

Small community wastewater treatment program

The Public Facilities Authority's Small Community Wastewater Treatment Program provides funding to help communities replace non-complying septic systems and straight pipes with new individual or cluster subsurface sewage treatment systems (SSTS) that will be publicly owned, operated, and maintained. Technical assistance grants up to $60,000 may be used to conduct preliminary site evaluations and prepare feasibility reports, provide advice on possible SSTS alternatives, and help develop the technical, managerial, and financial capacity to build, operate, and maintain SSTS systems. The PFA also offers construction financing up to $2 million per year at 1% interest and grants up to 80 percent, based on affordability criteria.

Clean Water Revolving Fund

Minnesota's revolving loan program provides loans to municipalities for planning, design, and construction of wastewater treatment projects that are eligible under Minnesota Rule Chapter 7077. Increased funding for county SSTS programs has been provided in the Clean Water Legacy funding package, beginning with the budget approved by the 2006 Legislature.

Agriculture Best Management Practices loan program

The Minnesota Department of Agriculture's Agriculture Best Management Practices loan program provides low interest loans to farmers, rural landowners, and agriculture supply businesses to encourage efforts to prevent or reduce runoff from feedlots, farm fields, and other pollution problems identified in local water plans.

Clean Water Partnership

The MPCA provides financial and technical assistance to local government and other water resource managers to address nonpoint-source water pollution.

Grants

The MPCA offers two grants to counties annually for SSTS program administration costs (base grant) and SSTS upgrades (low-income fix-up grant). 

Base grant ($21,200 per county)

If a county meets these three criteria they will receive the grant. No application is required.

  • the county administers an SSTS program
  • the county has an SSTS ordinance that meets state standards (includes all required provisions and is updated to include 2011 provisions for systems over 2,500 gpd)
  • the county files an annual report

Low-income fix-up grants (no maximum per county; total of $1.59 million available statewide) 

This grant enables counties to provide financial assistance to low-income homeowners with a noncompliant SSTS who meet the following criteria:

  • their SSTS has received a notice of noncompliance because it fails to protect groundwater or it is an imminent threat to public health or safety
  • the SSTS serves a homesteaded single-family dwelling or duplex
  • the homeowner is low-income according to the criteria chosen by the county
  • the project is completed during the grant period

The grant may be awarded to a county without a list of specific properties and may be held by the county for the duration of the grant period. If awarded a grant, the funds will flow to a county through the Board of Water and Soil Resources’ (BWSR) Natural Resources Block Grants, and progress on work relating to the grant will be reported through BWSR’s eLINK system. If funds are not used for eligible projects within the grant period, they must be returned to the state.

The MPCA determines low-income fix-up grant allocations based on review of submitted applications, which are due by 4:30 p.m. on Sept. 2, 2025.