Alabama Awards $348M For Water Infrastructure Projects

The Alabama Department of Environmental Management (ADEM) has awarded $348M in grants and loans for sewer repairs and upgrades in almost 75% of the state's counties. The state said it allocated funds according to need and prioritized projects in those communities that were not able to pay for them on their own.

The amount is part of the $473M the state expects to award for water infrastructure this year - $225M from the American Rescue Plan Act and $122M from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, combined with other federal and state money.

Approximately $122M of the funds included in this latest disbursement – including $77M in grants – will go to projects in what the state calls the Black Belt, named for the region's black topsoil. The area is especially challenged, the ADEM said, by an underlying impermeable soil, low population density and low income.Most of the projects there will not require matching funds.

Four of the grants going to projects in the region's Lowndes County include:

• $12.9M to the town of Hayneville – $10M for sewer projects and $2.9 for drinking water projects;
• $1M to the town of Lowndesboro for a drinking water project; and
• $735,000 to the Lowndes County Water Authority for another drinking water project.

The Black Belt region will also receive $5M of the $225M in ARPA funds for demonstration sewer projects – $2.2M for Department of Public Health projects using special septic systems and $2.8M for a cluster system demonstration project by the University of South Alabama.

Whether large or small or in urban, suburban or rural areas, the agency said, many public water systems have significant repair or modernizations needs. Some areas even have issues accessing satisfactory water and sewer services, presenting health and quality of life issues.

In fact, ADEM has received more than $3.2B of funding requests for almost half of the state’s 1,061 public water and sewer systems.

"We make no pretense that we can satisfy all the water and sewer infrastructure needs in the state of Alabama," said Lance LeFleur, the ADEM's director, in a prepared statement. "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.

"Thanks to Governor Kay Ivey and the Alabama Legislature, we are making an unprecedented investment in water and sewer systems across Alabama to address longstanding and, in some cases, dire needs that go back decades," he said. "… These projects are going to have a significant, positive effect on the lives of millions of Alabamians."