Pa Invests $28 Million In Clean Wateer Projects
Fourteen Pennsylvania communities will be getting cleaner drinking water and more efficient wastewater and storm water systems with approval today of $25 million worth of low-interest loans and almost $3 million in grants.
The financial packages were authorized by the Pennsylvania Infrastructure Investment Authority, PENNVEST. This new round of loans and grants brings PENNVEST’s total funding for community water, sewer and storm water projects to more than $3.9 billion since the program’s inception in 1988.
Projects funded Wednesday range from the smallest grant of $62,500 to upgrade an antiquated water system in Somerset County to the largest loan of $6.5 million to rehabilitate a water system in Schuylkill County, where the drinking water is discolored and contaminated by both iron and manganese.
The Sewickley Borough Water Authority in Allegheny County will have better drinking water after using a newly approved $4.6 million loan to construct a pump station, water storage tank and almost two miles of distribution lines in order to improve water flow and pressure and to preclude contamination of finished water currently in deteriorated reservoirs.
Under a new wastewater loan, Bern Township Municipal Authority in Berks County will receive $4.8 million to eliminate the use of malfunctioning septic systems that are contaminating local drinking water wells by constructing over five miles of collection lines and financing the purchase of treatment capacity at the Berks County wastewater treatment plant.
The only storm water project approved is in Dauphin County’s Steelton Borough. A $1.3 million loan will be used to replace deteriorated storm water piping and install manholes and other facilities that will eliminate street and sidewalk cave-ins that can occur during heavy rains.
“Providing clean drinking water and improved wastewater and storm systems is vital to the revitalization of our communities and to the health and well-being of our citizens,” Governor Edward Rendell said.
