Water and Wastewater Construction Loans Awarded

Nashville, Tenn. – Governor Phil Bredesen has announced that five communities, one wastewater authority and two counties on behalf of a single-services system will receive low-interest loans totaling nearly $68 million from the State Revolving Fund Loan Program to fund much-needed water and wastewater construction projects. The Department of Environment and Conservation administers the SRF Loan Program for the state of Tennessee.

“I am pleased to see local governments accessing this important program,” Bredesen said. “The State Revolving Fund loan program is a tool to help communities address their current infrastructure needs and to allow them to prepare for future needs.”

SRF loan recipients, whose loan amounts and projects are detailed below, include Monroe and Loudon counties (Tellico Area Services System); the Water and Wastewater Authority of Wilson County; the cities of Ethridge, Lebanon, Lenoir City and Loudon; and the Metropolitan Government of Nashville and Davidson County.

“Community investments in our drinking water and wastewater systems are vital to maintaining environmental and public health,” Environment and Conservation Commissioner Jim Fyke said. “These loans will help keep our communities moving forward.”

The SRF Loan Program provides low-interest loans that help communities, utility districts and water and wastewater authorities finance projects that protect Tennessee’s ground and surface waters and public health. Loans are used to finance the planning, design and construction of water and wastewater facilities. Through this program, communities, utility districts and water and wastewater authorities can obtain loans with lower interest rates than most can obtain through private financing.  Interest rates for the loans can vary from zero percent to market rate based on each community’s economic index.

The funding order of projects is determined by the SRF Loan Program’s Priority Ranking Lists that rank potential projects according to the severity of their pollution and/or compliance problems and for the protection of public health. Through 2007, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency provided seed money for the SRF Loan Program, and the state provided matching funds.
SRF Wastewater Loans were announced today for the following recipients:

• Ethridge, Lawrence County – A $574,279 increase to an existing 20-year loan, with an interest rate of 2.11 percent, for the installation of a gravity sewer collection system within the city limits of Ethridge.  The city currently has no sewer collection system.  Wastewater will be transported by an existing pump station to the city of Lawrenceburg’s Wastewater Treatment Plant.
• Lebanon, Wilson County - A $14 million, 20-year loan, with an interest rate of 2.3 percent, to upgrade and to expand the existing wastewater treatment plant from 7.5 to 10 million gallons per day and to construct approximately three miles of 30-inch diameter effluent forcemain to manage and to convey peak flows and to improve the quality of the plant effluent.
• Lenoir City, Loudon County – A $13.5 million, 20-year loan, with an interest rate of 1.47 percent, to expand the existing wastewater treatment plant from two to four million gallons per day, in two phases.  This loan will fund the first phase, which will expand the wastewater treatment plant from two to three million gallons per day.  The second phase, which would bring total capacity to four million gallons per day, is proposed for construction sometime within the next five years.
• Loudon, Loudon County - A $1.9 million, 20-year loan, with an interest rate of 1.84 percent, for the installation of a 740-gallon per minute pump station in the Poplar Springs area of Loudon County and the construction of approximately 9,900 linear feet of forcemain from the pump station across the Tennessee River to the Loudon Wastewater Treatment Plant.
• Loudon County, Tellico Area Services System – An approximately $4.7 million, 20-year loan, with an interest rate of 1.47 percent, to expand and to upgrade the Niles Ferry Industrial Park Wastewater Treatment Plant from 0.3 to 1.5 million gallons per day, as well as the conversion of the existing wastewater treatment facility to aerobic digesters, and the addition of ultraviolet disinfection.
• Monroe County, Tellico Area Services System – An approximately $4.7 million, 20-year loan, with an interest rate of 1.47 percent, to expand and to upgrade the Niles Ferry Industrial Park Wastewater Treatment Plant from 0.3 to 1.5 million gallons per day, as well as the conversion of the existing wastewater treatment facility to aerobic digesters, and the addition of ultraviolet disinfection.
• Nashville, Metro Davidson County – An approximately $10.2 million 20-year loan, with an interest rate of 2.94 percent, to construct a 10 million gallon circular concrete flow equalization basin and to retrofit the abandoned West Park Pump Station with three 30 million gallon per day submersible pumps to reduce rainfall-induced overflows.
• Nashville, Metro Davidson County – An approximately $11.3 million, 20-year loan, with an interest rate of 2.94 percent, to construct a 10 million gallon per day circular concrete flow equalization basin and a new pump station with three 30 million gallon per day submersible pumps to reduce rainfall-induced overflows in the Barker Road/Visco Drive sewer drainage basin area.
• Nashville, Metro Davidson County – An approximately $2.8 million, 20-year loan, with an interest rate of 2.94 percent, to divert flow from an existing 36-inch diameter trunk sewer that is subject to infiltration and inflow from the adjacent Mill Creek to an existing parallel, 66-inch diameter trunk sewer line that is more structurally sound.
• Water and Wastewater Authority of Wilson County – An approximately $2.75 million, 20-year loan, with an interest rate of 2.57 percent, for the installation of approximately 45,000 linear feet of collection system forcemain interceptors to transport flow to the Pine Creek Golf Course’s Logue Road Wastewater Treatment Plant for treatment and dispersal and approximately 45,000 linear feet of re-use lines in five areas of the authority’s service area.  The re-use lines will eliminate surface water discharges in the planning area.

SRF Drinking Water Loans were announced today for the following recipients:

• Loudon, Loudon County – An approximately $1 million, 20-year loan, with an interest rate of 1.84 percent, to install about 12,000 linear feet of 24-inch diameter water main extending from the Grove Street Water Treatment Plant across the Tennessee River to Blair Bend Drive.  This will replace the previous 12-inch diameter water main across the Tennessee River that had been demolished during the construction of the new U.S. Highway 11 Bridge.
• Loudon, Loudon County - A $350,000, 20-year loan, with an interest rate of 1.84 percent, to install approximately 7,000 linear feet of 12-inch diameter and 8-inch diameter water main extensions to loop existing lines in the Notch-In-Hill area to increase pressures.

Since its inception in 1987, Tennessee’s Clean Water State Revolving Fund Loan Program has awarded more than $950 million in low-interest loans. Since its inception in 1996, Tennessee’s Drinking Water State Revolving Fund Loan Program has awarded more than $108 million in low-interest loans. Both programs combined award approximately $75 million annually to Tennessee’s local governments for water and wastewater infrastructure projects.

Any local government interested in the SRF Loan Program should contact the State Revolving Fund Loan Program, L&C Tower, 8th Floor, 401 Church Street, Nashville, TN 37243, or call (615) 532-0445. Information about SRF Loan Program may be found online at www.tdec.net/srf.