Southwest Kansas Virtually Shut Out Again With Stimulus Funds

Communities across Kansas will receive money by the Kansas Department of Health and Environmentź??s (KDHE) selection of 12 projects to improve Kansasź?? wastewater infrastructure. The projects will be funded almost entirely through monies provided by the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act of 2009.

Earlier this month, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced that it had awarded $35 million in Recovery Act funding to KDHE to improve wastewater infrastructure across the state. The funds went to Kansasź?? Clean Water State Revolving Fund program which provides low-interest loans for water quality protection projects for wastewater treatment, non-point source pollution control and watershed and estuary management.

KDHE plans to supplement the $35 million in Recovery Act resources with other monies from its Clean Water State Revolving Fund to fund projects costing just over $36 million. To-date, KDHE has selected 12 projects estimated at just over $29 million. Each of the 12 selected projects includes some portion of funding on which the principal will be forgiven. The remainder of each projectź??s funding is being provided as a low-interest loan. For the additional $7 million in funding that is available, KDHE is soliciting additional innovative green project proposals that will provide stormwater water quality enhancements and treatment of non-point sources of pollution.

Cities and counties across Kansas submitted about 70 project proposals for funding consideration. Proposals were reviewed by KDHE staff who made the selections based on readiness to proceed and the green component included in the project.

The projects selected to receive funding are:

City of Bucklin

Estimated cost: $766,000

City of Colby

Estimated cost: $70,500

City of Hutchinson

Estimated cost: $4.7 million

City of Jetmore

Estimated cost: $1.6 million

Johnson County Wastewater

Estimated cost: $15.6 million

City of Leoti

Estimated cost: $123,000

City of Lindsborg

Estimated cost: $5.4 million

City of Oberlin

Estimated cost: $174,000

City of Pittsburg

Estimated cost: $1.3 million

City of Topeka

Estimated cost: $55,000