State officials today announced the reallocation of about $7.7 million in economic recovery funding to 12 communities for “green” drinking water projects and two communities for wastewater infrastructure projects as a part of American Recovery and Reinvestment Act awards.
The new economic recovery drinking water project awards, administered by the Division of Environmental Health, totaled $3.97 million. The projects include:
• Water systems in the towns of Pollocksville, Montreat, Littleton, Taylorsville, Rutherford College, Murphy and Cramerton, as well as Burke, Warren and Wayne counties all received funding for replacing existing water meters with innovative, automatic meter reading systems.
• The Riegelwood Sanitary District received funding to install master meters on existing supply transmission mains.
Complete, revised list of drinking water ARRA award recipients
According to staff with the Division of Environmental Health, as round one and two projects progressed, some applicants initially awarded funding either declined their recovery funds or decreased the scope of their projects. These funds were used for the 12 projects.
The new wastewater infrastructure improvement projects slated to benefit from ARRA funding – administered by the Division of Water Quality – are located in Caswell Beach in Brunswick County and Spindale in Rutherford County. Following approval from the Local Government Commission, which Caswell Beach has already received, both will receive allocations that were already earmarked for other projects but were made available when final projects costs were less than the original estimates.
Caswell Beach will receive $3 million to partially fund a new collection system that will take two small plants off-line. The wastewater will go to the West Brunswick Wastewater Treatment Plant via Oak Island’s system. West Brunswick treats wastewater to reuse levels and some reuse water will be returned to Caswell Beach for irrigation needs.
Spindale will receive $791,941 to rehabilitate approximately one mile of sewer lines and to upgrade the Oak Street Pump Station. These improvements will help to eliminate overflows from the pump station.
Project awards are not final until all ARRA and other federal requirements have been met and the Local Government Commission approves the recipient’s financial qualifications. Funds will be awarded as 50 percent zero-interest loans and 50 percent principal forgiveness loans. In accordance with ARRA requirements, priority is given to projects that can proceed quickly, already have any required permits and have additional funding committed, if needed.
The Division of Environmental Health’s Public Water Supply Section received a federal capitalization grant of $65.6 million on April 15. The initial round of projects, funded in April, awarded $40.4 million in drinking water funds to 35 local systems. In July, nearly $23.9 million in recovery funds was awarded in the second round of funding to 28 communities for public water supply projects.
The Division of Water Quality’s Clean Water State Revolving Fund Program received a grant of $70.7 million to fund wastewater system improvements throughout the state. First-round project awards – made on April 24 – were awarded to 36 communities in 30 counties, and totaled nearly $45.9 million. Second-round project awards totaling $21.3 million were made on July 20 and went to 12 communities in nine counties for wastewater and stormwater projects.
For additional information on both drinking water and wastewater infrastructure project funding and criteria – along with other types of economic recovery projects administered by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources – please visit http://portal.ncdenr.org/web/arra/home. Information about federal recovery funding throughout North Carolina can be found at www.ncrecovery.gov.
