EPA Allocates Stimulus Funds for Water Quality, SRFs
At the end of May, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced dollar amounts that will be appropriated to various states to protect water quality and additionally fund Water Quality Management Program (WQMP) grants, and the Clean Water State Revolving Fund (CWSRF) and Drinking Water State Revolving Fund (DWSRF) programs.
The funds are provided through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 which became law in February.
WQMP grants support a broad range of activities, such as setting standards, monitoring the quality of the water, developing plans to restore polluted waters, and identifying ways to protect healthy waters from becoming polluted. States are also encouraged to use these funds for more innovative planning activities like developing plans to adapt to climate change, analyzing trends in water availability and use, and creating low-impact development programs. Grants are awarded to state agencies and some of the funds can be awarded to regional and interstate planning organizations. The SRF programs provide low-interest loans for projects including wastewater treatment, drinking water treatment, nonpoint source pollution control, and watershed and estuary management.
The following is a list of the recipients and the amounts:
- Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality, $259,000, Water Quality Management Planning (WQMP) grants.
- California State Water Resources Control Board, $280,000,000, CWSRF.
- California Department of Public Health, $159,000,000, DWSRF.
- Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection, $485,000, WQMP.
- Minnesota Public Facilities Authority, $72,031,000 to CWSRF, $35,110,000 to DWSRF.
- Mississippi Department of Health, $19.5 million, DWSRF.
- New Mexico Environment Department, $194,300, WQMP.
- North Dakota Department of Health, more than $19.2 million, CWSRF. A $5-million project will transport treated effluent from a Jamestown, N.D. water treatment facility for reuse by an energy plant near Spiritwood, N.D. The energy plant would otherwise use groundwater for its processed water need.
- Ohio Environmental Protection Agency, $220,623,100 to CWSRF, $58,460,000 to DWSRF.
- Vermont, nearly $39 million, CWSRF.