L'EPA fixe l'allocation de plomb pour l'exercice 2026 : Porto Rico est à 27,456 millions de dollars

On September 17, 2026, this table anchors in the official memorandum from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) dated May 20, 2026, which sets the fiscal allocations for the Lead Service Line Replacement (LSLR) program of the Drinking Water State Revolving Fund (DWSRF) under the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (P.L. 117-58). The document, signed by Jessica L. Kramer and addressed to water directors of Regions I–X, is not a disbursement to Puerto Rico: it is the allotment table and the application rules. That distinction matters: allotted is not awarded and awarded is not disbursed.

According to the memorandum, the eligible states, Puerto Rico and Washington, D.C., have until September 30, 2027 to apply for and receive these funds. Any unallocated balance after that date becomes available for reallotment. In other words, the capture window for the FY2026 allotment remains open months after the date of this note, and the governance clock is counting down toward that cutoff.

Congress, in the 2026 appropriations law (P.L. 119-74), reduced the fiscal year LSLR appropriation by $125 million. Those funds were redirected to the Department of the Interior’s wildfire management programs. The memorandum clarifies that the total available for national set-asides and allotments to states dropped from $3 billion to $2.875 billion—a figure that Attachment 1 of the same package labels as “FY 2026 IIJA LSLR DWSRF Allotment of $2,875,000,000.” Anyone who reads only the isolated phrase “$2.875 million” in a poorly copied summary is reading a scale error; the attached table and the $125 million cut from $3 billion confirm the billions order of magnitude.

The FY2026 allotments table allocates $27,456,000 to Puerto Rico, equivalent to the statutory minimum of 1.00%. Several states and territories at the minimum receive the same figure. That does not mean that Puerto Rico has the same lead inventory as Illinois or New York—which receive much larger allotments; it means that the formula, after set-asides, applies the 1% floor when the estimated inventory does not support a larger share.

The allotment method, EPA explains, was updated with the 7th Drinking Water Infrastructure Needs Survey and Assessment (DWINSA) and incorporates counts from the initial inventory of the Lead and Copper Rule Revisions. The agency still estimates nearly 4 million lead and galvanized lines that require replacement nationwide. The inventories used are those submitted by the states up to the fourth quarter of calendar year 2025. Blank inventories were treated as non-lead; gaps were filled with connections reported in the Safe Drinking Water Information System.

As an additional subsidy, IIJA LSLR funding maintains 49% of additional subsidy for systems that meet state criteria for disadvantaged communities under Section 1452(d)(3) of the Safe Drinking Water Act. Attachment B breaks down those amounts by jurisdiction. That fraction does not automatically turn Puerto Rico's allotment into a grant: the state or territory defines disadvantaged community eligibility after public review, and the project still has to be implemented and documented.

For the MONEY/news track, the peg of September 17 is operational: the memorandum sets the FY2026 menu, the national ceiling of $2.875 billion, Puerto Rico's floor at $27.456 million, and the deadline of September 30, 2027. It does not publish how much has already been obligated or disbursed on the Island. Anyone who adds this allotment again to the stock of note 800 (press release on the same $27.456 million) would be double-counting the same vehicle. Here the contribution is the allotment document with rules, method, and deadline — not a new check.

The table insists: programmatic designation ≠ approved request ≠ assistance agreement ≠ disbursement to the community. If later the EPA or the Puerto Rico water authority publish LSLR FY2026 obligations or disbursements with a date, that figure will be quoted separately. Until then, what is verifiable in this primary is the allotment framework of May 20, 2026.