SPI Insights

Washington, D.C. – The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on April 15 announced $300 million in financial assistance for water infrastructure upgrades in Washington, D.C., Louisville, Kentucky, and the Florida Keys.

Funds will come from the EPA’s Water Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act (WIFIA) as part of 49 allotments totaling $9.3 billion.

DC Water will receive $156 million for its Comprehensive Infrastructure Repair, Rehabilitation, and Replacement Program to advance infrastructure projects that will increase public health protection and benefit water quality in local rivers.

Upgrades to water mains and pumps throughout the system will improve drinking water distribution for better public health protection. The project will protect the Potomac and Anacostia Rivers from sewage contamination by upgrading stormwater management systems and collecting and treating wastewater at the Blue Plains Treatment Plant. The program includes a combination of 20 drinking water and wastewater projects to rehabilitate, upgrade, and/or replace aging infrastructure throughout the system.

The EPA will award $97 million to the Louisville and Jefferson County Metropolitan Sewer District (MSD) for $197.8 million in improvements to the Morris Forman Water Quality Treatment Center, Kentucky’s oldest and largest wastewater treatment plant.

Solids treatment and handling processes at the 120 million gallons per day facility have reached the end of their useful life, necessitating the current landfill of biosolids. EPA’s WIFIA funding will support state-of-the-art improvements for processing solids with the capacity to produce 40,000 dry tons of exceptional quality biosolids per year for beneficial reuse, reducing reliance on landfilling. The improvements significantly increase energy production and improve system operations and reliability.

EPA will help finance $49 million of the Florida Keys Imperiled Water Supply Rehabilitation Project to replace a reverse osmosis plant that will provide a reliable alternative water supply during emergencies. Funding will support additional upgrades to aging infrastructure throughout the system, including 12 miles of aging pipes and an underperforming water distribution pump station. These upgrades will help improve the system’s climate resiliency and mitigate the impacts of more frequent and severe hurricanes.