Where the data comes from, and what a "signal" means.
WaterworksIQ diffs the same public program documents state agencies already publish. No survey data, no self-reported pipeline — just the priority lists, intended use plans, and funding lists, tracked snapshot to snapshot.
Sources
Minnesota Public Facilities Authority — Drinking Water & Clean Water SRF Intended Use Plans (IUP) and Project Priority Lists (PPL).
Wisconsin DNR — Clean Water Fund Program (CWFP) & Safe Drinking Water Loan Program (SDWLP) priority lists and funding lists.
North Dakota DEQ — Drinking Water & Clean Water SRF Intended Use Plans (IUP) and annual reports.
3M settlement award announcements.
Every source document is captured as a snapshot; each week's new snapshot is diffed against the prior one for that same program and document type to compute movement.
Signal types
A "signal" is a detected change for a project between two consecutive snapshots. These are the ones the brief and pipeline lead with:
Entered the fundable range
Projects placed in the IUP's fundable tier — the closest signal to imminent procurement.
Advanced to the funding list
Projects that moved from the priority list onto the fundable funding list — the closest signal to imminent procurement.
Moved onto the intended use plan (IUP)
Projects that moved off the priority list onto the IUP roster — the full roster, which includes non-fundable carryover Parts alongside the fundable tier.
New on the priority list
Projects that appeared on the priority list for the first time.
Rising in priority
Projects that climbed materially in the priority ranking (or, for WI, priority score) year over year.
Cost estimate changes
Projects whose estimated cost moved materially — scope growth or contraction.
On the prior list, absent now — funded, withdrawn, or deferred (status not asserted).
The homepage's "Time to funding" figure is the median time from a project's first listing to the earlier of Entered the fundable range or Advanced to the funding list — median rather than average, since a small number of slow-moving projects would otherwise pull the number higher than what most experience.
The forecast's estimated tranche
The equipment-category forecast's "Tranche 1–4" isn't a scheduled date — no source document gives us one. It's a priority-order estimate: for each category, we take every currently-fundable project, rank them by priority (lowest rank number first in Minnesota and North Dakota, highest score first in Wisconsin), and split that ordered list into four even groups. Tranche 1 is the top of that priority order, Tranche 4 is the bottom — a read on where a project stands in line, not a prediction of when it gets funded.
What we don't claim
Milestone ≠ outcome. A priority-list position is a funded intention. We never sell list status as bid readiness.
Coverage boundary. Projects seeking SRF financing in MN, WI & ND — most significant small-community water capex, not all municipal capex.
Stages are labeled precisely. "No longer listed" asserts nothing about why.
Sources: MN Public Facilities Authority IUP/PPL · WI DNR CWFP & SDWLP · ND DEQ DWSRF/CWSRF IUP · 3M settlement award announcements. Snapshots diffed weekly.MethodBriefsPricingTerms & privacyContact