3.4.09
Grants flow to drinking water projects
By: Nancy Gaarder, Omaha World-Herald
Click here for list of grant requests.
M.U.D. note: M.U.D. will receive $1,007,528.20 for the Platte South contact basin from the stimulus package. The remaining amount, $5,509,471.80, will be available at a 3% loan. The loan is for 20 years.
In 2008, the Nebraska Department of Health & Human Services reclassified the Platte South Water Treatment Plant from a groundwater treatment plant to a groundwater treatment plant under the influence of surface water.
This change requires M.U.D. to build a contact basin at the Platte South Plant which will enhance the water treatment process. It will not change the water quality. M.U.D.'s water continues to surpass all state and federal standards for safe drinking water.
More rigorous treatment of water pulled from the Platte River aquifer is among 26 drinking water projects in Nebraska that will receive money from the Obama stimulus plan.
Nebraska is receiving $19.5 million in grants through the American Response and Recovery Act for drinking water projects.
The Metropolitan Utilities District's water treatment project is among several marked for at least a million dollars in grant money, said Marla Augustine, spokeswoman for the Nebraska Health and Human Services System.
Others projects receiving $1 million or more in grants are in Auburn, North Platte and Alliance, Augustine said.
Statewide, projects vary from installing new meters in Bayard to constructing new well fields in communities such as North Platte and York.
Because the grants will not cover the full projects, the state is making low-interest loans available for the remainder of the costs. The loans carry an interest rate of 3 percent. The total value of the projects is about $50 million.
According to Gov. Dave Heineman’s office, the decision on which projects to fund was based on an existing state ranking system. Projects that were farther along in the planning process also received more consideration.
In the Omaha area, M.U.D. will use its $1 million grant to help build a $6.5 million chlorine contact basin at its Platte South treatment plant. The basin will slow the treatment process and allow water to remain in contact with the disinfectant, chlorine, for a longer period of time.
Scott Keep, senior vice president of operations, said the stimulus dollars will be a big help.
"We were going to have to do this anyway," he said. "This is one of those shovel-ready projects."
The project already is being advertised for contractors and is to be completed by 2011.
When the Platte South plant was built more than 40 years ago, the source of the water was considered to be the aquifer only, Keep said. The Nebraska Health and Human Services System has since determined that surface water is having a direct effect on the aquifer, so more rigorous treatment is needed.
"It’s not that there was a problem with the water coming out (of treatment)," Keep said. "This is a treatment process that reduces the risk."
Other communities receiving grant money for water projects:
- Alliance -- New wells or a water treatment plant to remedy an arsenic issue.
- Auburn -- New water treatment plant, wells and a transmission main.
- Bennet -- Replacement of water mains.
- Bridgeport -- New wells or water treatment plant to remedy uranium issue.
- Friend -- New well to remedy a nitrate issue; replacement of undersized water mains.
- Gresham -- New well to remedy nitrate issue.
- Hickman -- New water treatment plant; replacement of water mains to remedy iron, manganese and chloroform issues.
- North Platte -- In addition to the well field, new transmission mains.
- Pleasant Dale -- New well or water treatment to remedy nitrate issue.
- Schuyler -- New wells to remedy uranium and nitrate issues.
- Stuart -- New well to supply a proposed rural water district to remedy nitrate issue.
- Sutherland -- New well field and transmission mains to remedy nitrate and uranium issues.
- Wymore -- New wells or water treatment plant.
- York -- In addition to the well field, new transmission mains.