At more than 70 years old, the Paddy’s Run Flood Pump Station, owned and operated by the Louisville-Jefferson County Metropolitan Sewer District (MSD), is well beyond its useful life and at a very high risk of failure. Paddy’s Run protects 63,000 low-income residents in marginalized and underserved neighborhoods of West Louisville. The project will improve resilience and provide a measure of environmental justice to this historically disinvested area. Because reliability and capacity are both paramount objectives, the station will more than double in size to a pumping capacity of 1.9 billion gallons per day. In addition to the human safety risks of failure, this project is a requirement of MSD’s Amended Consent Decree because of the potential water quality consequences – hazardous chemical exposure from the Rubbertown industrial area and 50 million gallons per day of Combined Sewer System pollution, which would be catastrophic for the immediate area as well as downstream communities. The population within the inundation area has a Median Household Income (MHI) of approximately $32,695 (58% of the state’s MHI). The total project cost is $235M. Because of the vital importance of the infrastructure and the rapidly approaching Consent Decree deadline, MSD opted for a progressive design-build delivery method. Given the project's critical nature and substantial cost, MSD actively sought funding through various channels. This pursuit encountered numerous challenges, such as eligibility hurdles, rejections from multiple federal programs, and compliance with the Build America, Buy America Act (BABAA). Additionally, MSD will detail how they successfully navigated these challenges to secure $42.1M in Cleaner Water (ARPA) and Clean Water State Revolving funds. During this presentation, MSD and HDR will elaborate on their challenges, outlining the proactive measures taken to secure federal funding for the project.