North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper announced that communities statewide will receive $789.4 million in water and wastewater infrastructure funding.
This funding will help pay for 385 projects statewide, which includes 140 construction projects, reported the Governor's website.
“Clean drinking water is necessary for healthy families and thriving communities and businesses," said Governor Roy Cooper in the news release. "The historic level of investment provided by the American Rescue Plan will help increase resiliency, support economic growth in our state and improve access to clean water in the communities that need it most.”
There are five projects that will provide water connections in underserved or disadvantaged communities, which are:
- Sampson County will receive $13,283,000 to provide water system connections for the community of Ivanhoe;
- Nash County will receive $12,775,170 to extend waterlines to connect Nash County Area II and Northern Nash water systems;
- Greenevers, in Duplin County, will receive $1,300,466 to install waterlines for 63 new connections in underserved areas;
- Edgecombe County will receive $1,126,850 to install waterlines and 20 new services to disadvantaged areas; and
- McDowell County will receive $815,437 to extend waterlines to a potentially underserved block group.
Other projects related to drinking water improvements include:
- Andrews, in Cherokee County, will receive $13,798,000 for drinking water line replacements and wastewater treatment plant upgrades.
- Edenton, in Chowan County, will receive $4,854,725 for two new water wells and to conduct Asset Inventory and Assessments.
- Sanford, Fuquay-Varina and Holly Springs, in Lee and Wake Counties, are jointly receiving $55,000,000 for a regional project involving expansion of Sanford's water filtration facility.
- Ocracoke Sanitary District, in Hyde County, will receive $5,753,000 for a water tank replacement and asset inventory and assessment of their drinking water system.
The Department of Environmental Quality’s Division of Water Infrastructure received more than 700 applications from 94 of North Carolina’s 100 counties, reported the Governor's news release. In total, they requested more than $3.1 billion.
This funding round included: the first awards of American Rescue Plan Act water and wastewater funding on the state level; $174,846,696 in funds appropriated in the 2022-23 state budget; and funding from the Viable Utility Reserve and the Drinking Water and Wastewater State Reserves, funded from American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds allocated to the State, and the Drinking Water and Clean Water State Revolving Funds.
The news release adds that "projects funded from the Viable Utility Reserve are conditional upon approval by the Local Government Commission."
The application period for the next round of funding for water and wastewater infrastructure projects will include the first ARPA stormwater funding and ends on Sept. 30 at 5:00 p.m. The application training schedule is available at https://deq.nc.gov/about/divisions/water-infrastructure/i-need-funding.
