The nine projects receiving $86 million in loans and grants include:* LaFayette – $375,000 in forgiven loans and interest on an $800,000 wastewater improvement project* Cobb County – $25 million in loans for wastewater system improvements with almost $1 million in interest forgiveness.* Atlanta – $50 million in three different loans on two projects with at least $2.5 million in forgiven interest payments. One project is expected to yield an energy savings for the city of up to $1.2 million a year.Source: Georgia Environmental Finance Authority
LaFayette, Ga., is receiving federal stimulus help that nearly cuts in half the cost of $800,000 in wastewater system improvements to keep the city in compliance with environmental laws.
With the help of a low-interest loan and a block grant, taxpayers will have to finance only $425,000.
“It helps,” City Manager Johnnie Arnold said. “If not [for the assistance], our taxpayers and ratepayers would have to foot the entire bill.”
Arnold said the city’s sewage plant, built in the 1930s and last modernized about nine years ago, struggles in summers. Motorized paddles stir the wastewater during treatment to put oxygen in the water before it is released into Chattooga Creek, but on hot days they don’t provide enough air.
“So we are being required to update. It’s to stay in compliance,” Arnold said.
The planned new aeration system – compressing air and bubbling it up through the wastewater – is more energy efficient than the paddles, Arnold said, adding that a bid already has been approved and construction could begin in a few weeks.
“Hopefully it can be completed by spring,” he said.
The state and federal help – coupled with eight other projects in the Peach State – totals $86 million and “is wrapping up” the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act money awarded by the Georgia Environmental Finance Authority, according to Shane Hix, spokesman for the authority.
“We’ve pretty much awarded all the stimulus money we received,” Hix said.
The authority’s board of directors approved the loans and grants to help finance water and sewer infrastructure improvements for the cities of Atlanta, Clayton, Cornelia and LaFayette, as well as projects in Bryan, Carroll, Cobb and Lumpkin counties.
LaFayette’s project actually has been planned for five years, Arnold said, but the city couldn’t afford to do the work, even though the upgrade will help save the city about $90,000 a year in operating costs.
LaFayette’s assistance breaks down this way:
The city was approved for a 3-percent interest loan of $500,000 from the Clean Water State Revolving Fund to finance wastewater infrastructure, including a diffusion air system and chlorination system modifications. The Clean Water State Revolving Fund is a federal loan program administered by the Georgia Environmental Finance Authority
The city also will receive a $300,000 Energy Efficient Conservation Block Grant, as well as 15 percent – or $75,000 -forgiveness on the interest.