Project

New York, NY (November 8, 2018) — The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recognized 30 clean water infrastructure projects for excellence and innovation within the Clean Water State Revolving Fund (CWSRF) program. Honored projects include large wastewater infrastructure projects to small decentralized and agriculture projects. South Monmouth Regional Sewerage Authority, in New Jersey was recognized for its Pump Station Resiliency Initiative.

"The Clean Water State Revolving Fund plays an integral role in advancing the President's infrastructure agenda, providing communities with low-interest loans so that they can modernize aging infrastructure, create local jobs, and better protect public health and the environment," said EPA Office of Water Assistant Administrator Dave Ross. **"The scale and complexity of the 2018 PISCES recognized projects represent the determination, coordination, and creativity our partners put forth to achieve their water quality goals." **

The CWSRF is a federal EPA-state partnership that provides communities a permanent, independent source of low-cost financing for a wide range of water quality infrastructure projects. Over the past 31 years, CWSRF programs have provided more than $132 billion in financing for water quality infrastructure.

EPA's Performance and Innovation in the SRF Creating Environmental Success (PISCES) program celebrates innovation demonstrated by CWSRF programs and assistance recipients. Thirty projects by state or local governments, public utilities, and private entities were recognized by the 2018 PISCES program:

Exceptional Projects

• Delaware: City of Wilmington - Renewable Energy and Biosolids Facility
The City of Wilmington's wastewater treatment facility received a $36 million CWSRF loan to construct a renewable energy and biosolids facility for its treatment plant. This new facility captures previously flared methane gas from the plant's anaerobic digester and gas from a nearby landfill and uses it to generate four megawatts of electricity.

• **Kansas: Dodge City Biogas Reuse to Motor Fuel Project **
The Dodge City South Wastewater Treatment Plant developed a reuse project to clean and pressurize its excess biogas into a high-quality natural gas that can be sold on the market as motor vehicle fuel. The methane fuel produced is expected to have an annual production amount equivalent to 3.5 million gallons of gasoline.

• New Jersey: South Monmouth Regional Sewerage Authority - Pump Station Resiliency Initiative
Along with FEMA assistance, CWSRF funds were used to build three resilient pump stations that service several coastal communities that have recently experienced extreme weather events. Two of these pump stations are fully operational mobile units that can be disconnected during a severe storm and hauled to a safe location and the third pump station replaced an older station that was in a 100-year flood zone.

• Oregon: City of Prineville - Crooked River Wetlands Complex
The City of Prineville used CWSRF funding to design and construct the 120-acre Crooked River Wetlands Complex, which will help meet the effluent limits in the City's National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) wastewater permit. The Wetlands Complex has miles of trails open for public use and an outdoor classroom used by local schools. 

• Texas: Wichita Falls - Permanent Reuse Project
The City of Wichita Falls is using a $33.5 million CWSRF green project reserve loan with over $252,000 of principal forgiveness to build a permanent reuse project that will deliver indirect potable reuse water from the River Road Wastewater Treatment Plant to Arrowhead Lake. This permanent reuse project will help the City meet Texas Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (TPDES) discharge requirements and will provide a long-term solution that will assist the City in meeting their source water needs. 

Honorable Mention

• California: San Francisco Public Utilities Commission - Lake Merced Green Infrastructure
• Colorado: City of Durango - Santa Rita Water Reclamation Facility
• Florida: Cocoa Beach - Minuteman Causeway Stormwater/Streetscape Improvements
• Idaho: City of Nampa – Wastewater Treatment Plant Upgrade
• Kentucky: Lincoln County Sanitation District - Junction City to Hustonville Sewer Project 
• Maine: Lewiston-Auburn Water Pollution Control Authority - Anaerobic Digestion & Cogeneration Units
• Massachusetts: Town of Grafton - Wastewater Treatment Plant Improvements
• Ohio: Avon Lake – Lateral Loan Program
• Oklahoma: Oklahoma City Water Utilities Trust - Atoka Reservoir Dam Rehabilitation
• Pennsylvania: City of Reading - Fritz Island Solids and Liquids Treatment Plant Upgrade  

Recognized Project

• Alaska: City of Kodiak – Compost Facility
• Alabama: City of Cullman - Wastewater Treatment Plant Improvements
• Georgia: Peachtree City - Lake Peachtree Dam Spillway
• Louisiana: City of West Monroe - West Monroe Solar Panel Farm
• Maryland: City of Cumberland - Combined Sewer Overflow Storage Facility
• Michigan: City of East Lansing - Headworks Upgrades and Outfall Retrofit into a Relief Interceptor
• Minnesota: City of Afton - Stormwater Green Infrastructure and Advanced Wastewater Treatment
• Missouri: City of Liberty - Design-Build Wastewater Treatment Facility
• New Mexico: Village of Cuba - Solids Handling and Effluent Reuse
• Rhode Island: City of Newport - Wellington Avenue CSO Treatment Facility Upgrade
• South Carolina: Renewable Water Resources - Reedy River Basin Sewer Tunnel
• Vermont: Town of Waterbury - Wastewater Treatment Facility Upgrade
• Virginia: Harrisonburg-Rockingham Regional Sewer Authority - Biogas Recovery and Reuse Project 
• Washington: City of Bellingham - Squalicum Creek Water Quality and Biotic Integrity Improvements
• West Virginia: Town of Pennsboro - Wastewater System Improvement Project

Learn more about each of the 2018 PISCES recognized projects at https://www.epa.gov/cwsrf/pisces.

Picture courtesy of South Monmouth Regional Sewerage Authority

Published 11/8/2018