Bredesen Announces Second Round of Water and Wastewater Projects to Receive Recovery Act Funding
Thursday, September 03, 2009 | 06:32am
Nine Communities and Two Utility Districts Receive Funding, Additional Projects on Horizon
NASHVILLE – Governor Phil Bredesen and Department of Environment and Conservation Commissioner Jim Fyke announced today that nine communities and two utility districts have been approved to receive low-interest loans for water and wastewater infrastructure improvements. The funding comes from a combination of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 and the State Revolving Fund Loan Program. Forty percent of the funding is in the form of principal forgiveness, which does not have to be repaid.
This is the second round of Recovery Act grants and loans to be approved under the State Revolving Fund program.
“The Recovery Act is helping critical drinking water and wastewater infrastructure improvements in Tennessee move forward, which benefits both public health and the environment,” said Bredesen. “The principal forgiveness provision of the Recovery Act is an important aspect of the program, allowing us to provide additional relief to local communities during difficult economic times.”
The low-interest loans and principal forgiveness 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.
“I am always pleased to see local governments and utility districts access this program to help finance the planning, design and construction of water and wastewater facilities,” said Fyke. “Investments in our drinking water and wastewater systems are vital to the health of our communities, and we look forward to working with communities to move forward with these important projects.”
For the calendar year 2009, EPA provided almost $77 million in Recovery Act funding for the State Revolving Fund Loan Program and the state was not required to provide matching funds. In order to extend Recovery Act funding to a larger group of projects, Tennessee combined it with an equal amount of funding from the existing State Revolving Fund, which by law, cannot be used for another purpose.
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 or for the protection of public health. Environment and Conservation administers the Recovery Act/State Revolving Fund Loan Program in conjunction with the Tennessee Local Development Authority.
Wastewater loans were announced today for the following recipients:
City of Algood (Putnam County) – Algood will receive $3.23 million for a collection system expansion project to the Bear Creek area. The project will be funded with a 20-year, $1.94 million loan with an interest rate of 2.14 percent and $1.29 million in principal forgiveness that will not have to be repaid.
City of Cookeville (Putnam County) – Cookeville will receive $3.5 million for a collection system upgrade and expansion via the systemwide installation of telemetry to pumping stations and the construction of a submersible sewage pumping station, force main and gravity sewer lines in the southwestern part of Cookeville in the Hudgins Creek drainage basin area. The project will be funded with a 20-year, $2.1 million loan with an interest rate of 2.5 percent and $1.4 million in principal forgiveness that will not have to be repaid.
City of Lenoir City (Loudon County) – Lenoir City will receive $4.5 million for wastewater treatment plant improvements and upgrades. The project includes digester rehabilitation to capture methane gas and convert it to energy for use in running the plant’s boiler/heat exchanger, trickling filter rehabilitation and miscellaneous upgrades. The project will be funded with a 20-year, $2.7 million loan with an interest rate of 2.88 percent and $1.8 million in principal forgiveness that will not have to be repaid.
City of Madisonville (Monroe County) – Madisonville will receive $5.83 million to convert the existing 900,000 gallon-per-day wastewater treatment plant to a 1.5 million gallon-per-day equalization basin and pump station, construct approximately 8.3 miles of force main to transport screened wastewater to the Tellico Reservoir Development Agency’s wastewater treatment plant, and eliminate Madisonville’s wastewater treatment plant discharge to Bat Creek. The project will be funded with a 20-year, $3.5 million loan with an interest rate of 2.14 percent and $2.33 million in principal forgiveness that will not have to be repaid.
Town of Monteagle (Grundy/Marion/Franklin Counties) – Monteagle will receive $6.2 million to replace the two existing 250,000 gallon-per-day package wastewater treatment plants with a new 500,000 gallon-per-day sequencing batch reactor wastewater treatment plant and to replace the old existing clay pipe collection system with a new small-diameter, low-pressure and conventional gravity collection system. This project will be funded with a 20-year, $3.72 million loan with an interest rate of 1.79 percent and $2.48 million in principal forgiveness that will not have to be repaid.
Town of Smyrna (Rutherford County) – Smyrna will receive $5.75 million for wastewater treatment plant improvements including a treated wastewater reuse project and a new storage tank. This project will be funded with a 20-year, $3.45 million loan with an interest rate of 2.14 percent and $2.3 million in principal forgiveness that will not have to be repaid.
City of White House (Robertson/Sumner Counties) – White House will receive $1 million for a new pump station and sewer collectors at Copes Crossing to eliminate the old Tyree Springs Lift Station. This project will be funded with a 20-year, $600,000 loan with an interest rate of 1.77 percent and $400,000 in principal forgiveness that will not have to be repaid.
Drinking Water Loans were announced today for the following recipients:
Bloomingdale Utility District (Sullivan County) –Bloomingdale Utility District will receive $3 million for the systemwide installation of automatic read water meters and the construction of waterline replacements. This project will be funded with a 20-year, $1.8 million loan with an interest rate of 1.77 percent and $1.2 in principal forgiveness that will not have to be repaid.
City of Jellico (Campbell County) –Jellico will receive $1.35 million for water source and storage improvements including construction of two new raw water wells, approximately 9,500 linear feet of raw water transmission lines, and re-activation of the old city water storage tank. This project will be funded with a 20-year, $810,000 loan with an interest rate of 0.71 percent and $540,000 in principal forgiveness that will not have to be repaid.
Madison Suburban Utility District (Davidson County) –The Madison Suburban Utility District will receive $1.1 million for water treatment plant improvements including automation and integration of processes equipment and the conversion from chlorine gas to liquid bleach. This project will be funded with a 20-year, $660,000 loan with an interest rate of 2.86 percent and $440,000 in principal forgiveness that will not have to be repaid.
City of Morristown (Hamblen County) –Morristown will receive $2 million for automatic radio meter replacements. This project will be funded with a 20-year, $1.2 million loan with an interest rate of 2.83 percent and $800,000 in principal forgiveness that will not have to be repaid.
This is the second round of Recovery Act grants/loans to be approved under the State Revolving Fund Program. The previously announced projects can be found at http://news.tennesseeanytime.org/node/2342. Additional Recovery Act/State Revolving Fund loans including principal forgiveness will be announced as they are finalized.
Since its inception in 1987, Tennessee’s Clean Water State Revolving Fund Loan Program has awarded more than $1 billion in low-interest loans. Since its inception in 1996, Tennessee’s Drinking Water State Revolving Fund Loan Program has awarded more than $137 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 the SRF Loan Program may be found online at www.tn.gov/environment/srf.
###