SPI Insights

Washington, D.C. – The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is investing $192 million in 29 states for rural water infrastructure. The investment is being made through the Water and Waste Disposal Loan and Grant program, which funds drinking water, stormwater drainage, and waste disposal systems projects in rural communities with 10,000 or fewer residents.

States include Alabama, Arkansas, California, Florida, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Mississippi, Montana, North Carolina, North Dakota, New Mexico, New York, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Washington, Wisconsin, and West Virginia.

In Virginia, $20.1 million is going to the Nelson County Service Authority to improve the Wintergreen sewer treatment and collection system. The wastewater treatment plant is more than 40 years old and will be replaced with a 300,000-gallon-per-day membrane bioreactor treatment plant. The plant’s collection system will include concrete pump stations and 152,500 linear feet of sewer pipe, and a closed-circuit television system will be installed for sewer line rehabilitation.

In Pennsylvania, more than $15 million is going to Waynesburg Borough’s wastewater treatment plant. The money will upgrade the plant’s infrastructure, alleviate high flows, and comply with pollutant discharge permit requirements.

In Arkansas, $12.8 million is going to the city of Gentry. The funds will be used to construct a 2.5 million-gallon elevated water storage tank with a single 2,300-gallon-per-minute booster pump station.