Emporia will benefit from some of the $19.5 million awarded to the Kansas Department of Health and Environment under the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act.
A project to improve the Emporia Water Treatment Plant is one of 39 drinking water infrastructure projects in the state selected to receive $360,000 in stimulus help.
The money will pay for 20 percent of a $1.8 million project to replace basin train 1 at the water plant, an improvement that has been on the city’s capital improvement plan for some time.
“We’ll be replacing basin train 1 and then improving the efficiency of the system by replacing older equipment,” said city manager Matt Zimmerman.
Under terms of the ARRA, at least 20 percent of stimulus money is to be used for green infrastructure, water and energy efficiency improvements. Emporia’s project proposal was one of 143 across Kansas submitted for stimulus money.
The $19.5 million coming to Kansas will go into the state’s Drinking Water State Revolving Fund program, which provides low-interest loans to finance infrastructure improvements for drinking water systems. According to a press release, KDHE plans to supplement the $19.5 million with other money from the revolving fund to help pay for the 39 projects selected, which together cost just over $53 million.
“We’re pleased to be able to help get our economy back on track by creating jobs and bringing revenue to communities across Kansas,” said Roderick Bremby, secretary of KDHE. “The dollars made available through the American Recovery Act have enabled us to fund more projects than we could on our own, which means that more Kansans will see infrastructure improvements in their communities.”
Zimmerman said the project at the water treatment plant has been scaled back from the original plan.
“Back in 2008, the original CIP was to add a fourth basin train so we’d have additional capacity,” Zimmerman said, “but with the Tyson impact and with water sales being down so significantly we decided to change the project to replacing the oldest basin train.”
Engineering on the project is to be completed in June, with construction scheduled to start in October.