Local Water Districts Receive Grants

Several water community water systems, located in Wayne County, have been awarded more than $10,000,000 in American Rescue Plan (ARPA) funding. The awards were made by the Missouri Department of Natural Resources in mid-November. According to DNR’s website, the grant program provides funding “to help Missouri communities improve drinking water, wastewater, and stormwater infrastructure as well as lead service line inventories.”
Missouri DNR received approximately 1,000 applications requesting more than $2.4 billion in funds. The department scored applications based on financial need, engineering capability, and the necessity of the proposed projects. DNR characterized the application process as “highly competitive.”
The Village of Mill Spring was awarded $4,217,690.74 to upgrade its drinking water infrastructure. It also received a $50,000 lead service line inventory grant. In addition to state ARPA funding, the Wayne County Commission awarded $30,000 to Mill Spring to cover the cost of engineering work that was necessary before the village could apply for state funding. This award will allow the Village of Mill Spring to construct a new well, rehabilitate the current storage tank, add an additional tank, and upgrade its water distribution system.
Wayne County Public Water Supply District #3 received the largest of all awards in the county. It was awarded $4,877,049 for drinking water infrastructure upgrades. Water District #3 also received $30,000 in local ARPA funding from Wayne County to cover pre-application engineering services. Potential projects for Water District #3 include replacement of the water distribution system and construction of a deep rock well, well house, and storage tank. The district will need additional funding to complete all the upgrades recommended by its engineers.
Public Water & Sewerage District No.4 of Wayne & Butler Counties received a total of $1,098,000 in state ARPA funds to make needed improvements and repairs to its drinking water infrastructure. While Water District No.4 is located in both Wayne and Butler counties, all improvements made with this funding will take place in Wayne County because local matching funds for the project were provided by Wayne County.
Brian Polk, Wayne County Presiding Commissioner, said the commission is very pleased to see such a large investment of funding by the Department of Natural Resources in county water infrastructure. “We are happy to partner with our local water districts and Missouri DNR to provide funding for what will be the largest water infrastructure investment Wayne County has seen in decades.”
The City of Williamsville submitted grant applications to Missouri DNR’s ARPA Wastewater fund. The State of Missouri allocated $125,000,000 to wastewater projects and it funded 34 applications, but Williamsville’s applications were not funded. Williamsville ranked 49th out of 329 applications. Mayor Sandy Joy said the city is actively pursuing other funding opportunities and she is hopeful that another source of funds will be found soon.