Introduction
The Clean Water and Drinking Water State Revolving Fund programs are delivering unprecedented levels of funding to Mid-Atlantic water utilities through the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, and Maryland have each received significant increases in their annual SRF allotments — in many cases double or triple pre-IIJA levels. Instrumentation and monitoring upgrades are eligible costs under both CWSRF and DWSRF programs, but they must be properly scoped, documented, and integrated into the project engineering report to receive funding.
Despite eligibility, instrumentation is routinely left out of SRF-funded capital projects. The reasons are predictable: instrumentation is often treated as a secondary consideration, added late in the design process without adequate justification, or cut during value engineering when budgets tighten. The result is that utilities invest millions in treatment infrastructure but continue operating with outdated, unreliable measurement systems that undermine the performance of the new equipment.
This article provides a practical guide for utility engineers and their consultants to ensure that instrumentation upgrades are properly included — and funded — in SRF capital project applications.
Understanding SRF Eligibility for Instrumentation
Both the CWSRF and DWSRF programs fund a broad range of infrastructure improvements. The CWSRF covers wastewater treatment plant upgrades, collection system rehabilitation, stormwater management, and nonpoint source pollution control. The DWSRF covers drinking water treatment, distribution system improvements, source water protection, and system consolidation.
Instrumentation is eligible as a component of any of these project types when it directly supports the project's treatment, operational, or compliance objectives. This includes flow meters installed as part of a treatment plant expansion, water quality analyzers required for compliance with new discharge permit limits, SCADA system upgrades that improve operational efficiency, telemetry and remote monitoring for distributed assets, and energy submetering installed as part of efficiency improvement projects.
The key requirement is that instrumentation must be scoped as an integral part of the funded project — not as a standalone purchase order appended after the project is approved.
Building the Case in Your Engineering Report
The engineering report (or facilities plan) is the primary document that SRF reviewers use to evaluate project eligibility, scope, and cost reasonableness. Instrumentation must be explicitly addressed in this report with sufficient detail to demonstrate its necessity and value.
Effective approaches include tying flow meters to specific permit compliance requirements — for example, demonstrating that the existing flume is beyond its useful life and that accurate influent flow measurement is required for capacity assessment and DMR reporting. Water quality analyzers should be linked to treatment performance verification — showing that continuous DO monitoring enables aeration optimization that will reduce energy consumption by an estimated percentage.
SCADA upgrades should be framed as operational infrastructure that supports the project's treatment objectives — not as IT expenditures. Documenting how SCADA integration enables automated process control, alarm management, and regulatory data logging strengthens the justification.
Cost estimates for instrumentation should be itemized separately within the project budget, with unit costs supported by vendor quotations or recent procurement data. Lump-sum allowances for "instrumentation and controls" are less convincing to reviewers than detailed instrument lists with specifications, quantities, and installed costs.
Common Mistakes That Get Instrumentation Cut
Several recurring mistakes lead to instrumentation being excluded from funded project scopes. Treating instrumentation as an allowance rather than a specified scope item makes it an easy target during value engineering. Failing to connect instrumentation to project objectives allows reviewers to question whether it is truly necessary.
Adding instrumentation after the engineering report is submitted creates administrative complications and may require project scope amendments. Underestimating installation and integration costs — including conduit, wiring, panel fabrication, SCADA programming, and commissioning — leads to budget overruns that can result in instrumentation being deferred.
Not engaging an instrumentation specialist during project planning means that instrument selections may not be optimized for the application, leading to either over-specification that inflates costs or under-specification that compromises performance.
COSTARS Procurement Advantage for SRF Projects
Pennsylvania utilities using SRF or IIJA funding can leverage the COSTARS cooperative purchasing program to streamline instrumentation procurement. As a COSTARS contract holder (PA Contract #SU-205), Emergent Energy Solutions offers pre-approved pricing that satisfies competitive procurement requirements for state and local government entities. This eliminates the need for separate RFP processes for instrumentation components, reducing project timelines and administrative burden.
COSTARS procurement is particularly advantageous for SRF-funded projects because it demonstrates compliance with competitive purchasing requirements while accelerating the procurement timeline. Utilities can issue purchase orders directly under the COSTARS contract, moving from specification to delivery faster than traditional bid processes allow.
How Emergent Energy Can Help
At Emergent Energy, we work with utilities and their consulting engineers from the project planning stage through commissioning, ensuring that instrumentation scopes are properly defined, budgeted, and integrated into overall capital projects. Our services include engineering report support with instrument specification and cost estimation, instrument selection optimized for the application and project budget, procurement under COSTARS contract terms, installation, SCADA integration, and commissioning, and post-installation calibration verification and maintenance programs.
As an NMSDC-certified MBE, we help utilities meet MBE/DBE participation goals that are often required for federally funded projects. Contact us at 215-645-7141 or visit emergentenergy.us/contact to discuss how instrumentation upgrades can be incorporated into your next SRF application.