EGLE Announces $17.7M In MI Clean Water Grants To Help Communities Upgrade Water Infrastructure, Protect Health And Environment

Upgrades to wastewater management around Lake Mitchell and lead service line removals in Eastpointe are among more than $17M in state grants recently awarded to Michigan communities.

The MI Clean Water Plan grants through the Substantial Public Health Risk Project Program (SPHRPP) and support from the federal American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) aim to help communities upgrade aging infrastructure to ensure healthy drinking water and protect Michigan’s environment.

Seventy percent of Michiganders are served by more than 1,000 community wastewater systems and a similar percentage get drinking water from community water systems. Those systems often struggle to find resources to address legacy issues like aging drinking water and stormwater facilities and emerging challenges like new standards for Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS) “forever chemicals.”

Governor Gretchen Whitmer, the Michigan Legislature, and federal agencies have ramped up funding for aging water infrastructure – a critical move to help ensure those water systems continue to protect public health and the environment, including Michigan’s unmatched freshwater resources.

More than half of EGLE’s budget has traditionally passed through to Michigan cities, towns, villages, and other local government agencies to finance critical improvements that help them better protect residents and our natural resources.

Grant roundup

Recent grants through the SPHRPP

• Village of Eau Claire: $1,866,000 for critical upgrades to the wastewater treatment system, including new influent control structures, a new outfall to Farmers Creek, new transfer structures and piping between lagoons, berm maintenance, and abandoning bypass structures.
• Lake Mitchell Sewer Authority: $849,372 for critical upgrades to the wastewater collection system, including upgrades to nine pump stations, rehabilitating 205 grinder pump stations, new metered manholes, and televising the gravity sewer main to identify and fix any damaged sections of pipe.

Recent grants through the CWSRF

• Chesterfield Township: $5,000,000 For Phase 2 of rehabilitating the Chesterfield Township Sanitary Sewer Interceptor using cured-in-place pipe lining. This will address the structural defects of the interceptor, while extending the life by approximately 50 years and eliminate ground water infiltration into the pipe.
• City of Eastpointe: $10,000,000 to complete approximately 1,100 lead water service line replacements throughout the City of Eastpointe.

Descriptions of funding sources

• Drinking Water State Revolving Fund: Low-interest loan program to help public water systems finance the costs of replacement and repair of drinking water infrastructure to protect public health and achieve or maintain compliance with federal Safe Drinking Water Act requirements. The DWSRF provides loans to water systems for eligible infrastructure projects. As water systems repay their loans, the repayments and interest flow back into the DWSRF to support new loans. American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funding operates as a grant and may be used in combination with loan dollars to reduce the financial burden on communities to pay for capital improvement debt.
  • Total ARPA funded grants awarded through program: $605,400,000
• Clean Water State Revolving Fund (CWSRF): Used by local municipalities to finance construction of water pollution control projects. These projects include wastewater treatment plant upgrades and expansions, combined or sanitary sewer overflow abatement, new sewers designed to reduce existing sources of pollution, and other publicly owned wastewater treatment efforts that improve water quality. The CWSRF can also finance stormwater infrastructure projects to reduce nonpoint sources of water pollution caused by things like agricultural runoff to lakes, streams, and wetlands. As with the DWSRF, ARPA funds can be used in conjunction with CWSRF loan dollars, thereby reducing the debt communities pay for infrastructure improvements.
  • Total ARPA-funded grants awarded through program: $397,250,000.
• Drinking Water Asset Management Program: Provides grant funding to assist drinking water suppliers with asset management plan development and updates, and/or distribution system materials inventories as defined in Michigan’s revised Lead and Copper Rule.
  • Total awarded grants through program: $56,499,900.
• Consolidation and Contamination Risk Reduction Program: Established to aid drinking water systems to help remove or reduce PFAS or other contaminants.
  • Total awarded grants through program: $43,000,000.
• Substantial Public Health Risk Project Program: Protects public and environmental health by removing direct and continuous discharges of wastewater from surface or groundwater.
  • Total awarded grants through program: $20,000,000.

Additional Background

• Since January 2019 the State of Michigan has invested over $4B to upgrade drinking water, stormwater, and wastewater facilities across the state, supporting over 57,000 jobs.
• In 2022, Governor Whitmer signed a package of bills to help communities access funding for water infrastructure.