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Dothan has been awarded $12.5 million in grant and low-interest loan money to replace old water mains that have served their usefulness.
The Alabama Department of Environmental Management (ADEM) announced Thursday that it is awarding $348 million in grants and loans to repair and upgrade crumbling, malfunctioning, and overwhelmed water and sewer systems around the state. More funding is expected to be announced in the coming months.
According to ADEM, the funding announced Thursday will benefit residents in nearly three-quarters of the state’s counties.
Earlier this year, the Alabama Legislature approved spending $225 million of the state’s allocation from the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funding to help public water and sewer systems with the greatest infrastructure needs as well as individual residents in need of water or sewer services.
ADEM is supplementing the $225 million with other federal and state funds. The department expects to receive $765 million over the next five years – including $137 million in 2022 – from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law passed by Congress last year. ADEM plans to combine that with $111 million in grants and loans through the State Revolving Fund.
ADEM expects to commit $473 million this year to water and sewer systems.
Along with Dothan, Columbia was awarded $1.36 million for water projects, and Ashford received $826,332 for water upgrades.
Dothan Utilities Director Billy Mayes said that of the money Dothan has been awarded, $2.5 million is in grant money while about $10 million will be in the form of a low-interest loan. The Dothan City Commission will vote on whether to accept the funding during its Tuesday meeting.
Mayes said anything the city can get in form of grant money will help extend the work it can do to upgrade antiquated cast iron, galvanized, and PVC lines used for the city’s drinking water system.
Dothan residents, Mayes said, have dealt with “red water” issues since the 1980s. The city flushes the system to alleviate problems in certain areas and have replaced old water lines over the years.
“They’ll have yellow or red water or odor in their water,” Mayes said. “The galvanized pipe is way past its useful life; it’s got to go.”
The ADEM award involves an area in the Woodland community starting around Hartford Highway and Fortner Street and extending to Oates Street, West Selma Street, Stadium Street, Park Avenue and the Ross Clark Circle. The city has already replaced some of the older drinking water lines in the Woodland area, and Mayes said the ADEM award will help them finish in the area.
“This is a way to get it done faster,” Mayes said. “With the grant and the low-interest loan, it gives us a way to get quite a bit done in a faster stretch.”
Another project area involves old PVC lines in the Trader’s Hill area (where the Ford dealership is located) along and inside the Ross Clark Circle. That project area stretches from Trader’s Hill to East Main as well as work from East Main to Cottonwood Highway, back to Park Avenue and Hartford Highway.
“That’s some of your main arteries for the city and for our customers, and to have problems with that creates problems not only for residential but it creates economic problems for our industries,” Mayes said.
Nearly half of the state’s 1,061 public water and sewer systems statewide submitted requests for projects totaling more than $3.2 billion, according to ADEM’s news release. As of Sept. 15, ADEM had awarded funding to systems in at least 48 of Alabama’s 67 counties.
South Alabama counties with systems receiving funding include Mobile, Baldwin, Houston, Escambia, Conecuh, Monroe and Clarke.
The Mobile Area Water and Sewer System was awarded $64.25 million – one the largest awards – for sewer work and drinking water projects. Like Dothan, the Mobile award is mostly in the form of low-interest loans.
ADEM Director Lance LeFleur said the grants and loans represent an “unprecedented” investment in the state’s public water and sewer system. Funds, he said, are going to communities with the most critical needs and that would not otherwise be able to afford the repairs and upgrades on their own.
ADEM created the website alabamawaterprojects.com to provide the public with information and regular updates on grant applications and awards. The site includes links to lists of the water and sewer systems that have applied for grants and loans, as well as those systems that already have been awarded funding.
LeFleur said the recipients chosen so far are just the first round of grants and loans to be awarded by ADEM.
“We make no pretense that we can satisfy all the water and sewer infrastructure needs in the state of Alabama,” he said. “The billions of dollars in requests we have received total several times the amount of money we have available. Projects we are not able to fund this year will be considered for funding in future years.”
Peggy Ussery is a Dothan Eagle staff writer and can be reached at aussery@dothaneagle.com or 334-712-7963. Support her work and that of other Eagle journalists by purchasing a digital subscription today at dothaneagle.com.
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