HYDE-SMITH: USDA APPROVES $8.26 MILLION FOR WATER SYSTEMS UPGRADES IN RURAL MISS.
Rural Development Grant-Loan Funds Provided to Five Mississippi Communities
WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-Miss.), who serves on the Senate Agriculture Appropriations Subcommittee, today announced $8.26 million in U.S. Department of Agriculture guaranteed loans and grants to support water and wastewater infrastructure projects in five rural Mississippi communities.
Systems in Adams, Claiborne, Forrest, Prentiss, and Union counties will receive USDA Rural Development Water and Waste Disposal Loan and Grant program funds for water infrastructure upgrades, including a new water well, waterline replacement, and other improvements.
“Rural water systems in Mississippi are eligible to apply for these USDA Rural Development resources to make aging systems more efficient and reliable for their customers. I commend these Mississippi communities for applying successfully for this financing, which is only available to rural communities with fewer than 10,000 residents,” Hyde-Smith said.
USDA long-term, low-interest loans and grants awarded to Mississippi include:
- Holcut-Cairo Water Association, Inc., Booneville – $2,950,000 ($2,077,000 loan, $873,000 grant) to support digging a new well, constructing a 100,000-gallon water storage tank and renovating the water treatment plant.
- Rawls Springs Utility District, Hattiesburg – $2,343,500 loan to expand service to approximately 30-metered customers, replace asbestos cement waterlines, upgrade well sites, and construct a new administration building.
- Adams County Water Association, Washington – $1,543,000 loan to support construction of a 1500-gallon per minute water well and a chlorination plant, including replacing six nonfunctioning gate valves and installing a supervisory control and data acquisition controlled altitude valve.
- City of New Albany – $1,250,000 loan to construct a new mechanical wastewater treatment plant and to renovate the existing wastewater collection system. (This is additional funding to an original $7,886,000 loan and $6,214,000 grant funded in August 2018.)
- Romola Water Association, Port Gibson – $175,000 ($97,000 loan, $78,000 grant) to replace 330 radio read meters and upgrade the automatic read meter system
This USDA program is available to towns, water districts and other eligible entities for drinking water, stormwater drainage and waste disposal systems in rural communities with 10,000 or fewer residents.
The Mississippi awards are drawn from FY2020 appropriations provided to the USDA for rural development programs, including Water & Environmental Programs. For application or eligibility information, visit the interactive RD Apply tool or contact the USDA Rural Development Mississippi state office.
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