Linden Awarded $3,830,722 Water Grant

The Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation (TDEC) announced last Wednesday 102 grants totaling $232,709,981 from the state’s American Rescue Plan (ARP) fund, part of which TDEC is administering in the form of drinking water, wastewater, and stormwater infrastructure grants. Since August, TDEC has awarded and announced $634,404,544 in grant funds through ARP programming.

The Town of Linden was awarded $3,830,722 as part of that announcement.

The Town will use ARP funds to address critical drinking water and wastewater needs, including the development of an Asset Management Plan.

Projects include the installation of a new water line to provide service to currently unserved residents, rehabilitation of sewers and manholes in the wastewater system, and removal of sludge to support the repair of the treatment plant.

The awards include funding for 132 individual drinking water, wastewater, and/or stormwater infrastructure projects.

Tennessee received $3.725 billion from the ARP, and the state’s Financial Stimulus Accountability Group dedicated $1.35 billion of those funds to TDEC to support water projects in communities throughout Tennessee.

Of the $1.35 billion, approximately $1 billion was designated for non-competitive formula-based grants offered to counties and eligible cities to address critical systems needs.

Those include developing Asset Management Plans, addressing significant non-compliance, updating aging infrastructure, mitigating water loss for drinking water systems, and reducing inflow and infiltration for wastewater systems.

The grants are part of the $1 billion non-competitive grant program. The remaining funds ($269 million) will go to state-initiated projects and competitive grants.

TDEC focuses these grants on the following goals:

–Protect and promote human health and safety and improve the quality of water by supporting water systems in non-compliance to work toward compliance with water quality requirements;

–Improve the technical, managerial, and financial capabilities of small, disadvantaged, or underserved water infrastructure systems;

–Address critical water infrastructure needs across the state.