NEW PHILADELPHIA – The Muskingum Watershed Conservancy District (MWCD) is offering $5 million to local governments in the region for improving wastewater treatment, district Executive Director Craig Butler told the Mount Vernon News.
Portions of Knox County are included in the area eligible for the funding, Butler said.
MWCD is partnering with the Ohio Water Development Authority on the project through its Freshwater Loan Program.
“That program is one that communities often use to help fund really expensive wastewater infrastructure upgrades that are mandated by the State Environmental Protection Agency or the federal EPA because of poor water quality,” Butler said.
Local governments may also want to expand wastewater capacity to attracted development and create jobs, he added.
“Communities are often struggling with these infrastructure investments because they are really expensive, and on a per-user basis the costs can be high,” the director said.
Under the partnership, communities would apply for funds through the Water Development Authority.
“If the community met our requirements and qualifications too, we would then be able to subsidize the interest on those loans,” Butler said. “The community would have either lower overall payments, shorter payment terms or perhaps ask for additional money that would help them put in additional infrastructure.”
It could help communities meet their compliance obligations and also not lag behind economically due to poor infrastructure.
One of the first questions industrial prospects often ask when considering locating to a new community is about wastewater capacity, Butler said. Some communities may be marked off a prospect’s list before even being considered.
“It’s been my experience that if communities don’t have the capacity or they are out of compliance, they just get bypassed,” Butler said. “They continue to be left behind in terms of new opportunities.”
The Muskingum Watershed Conservancy District was formed in 1933 to reduce flooding and conserve water in the Muskingum River Watershed, which is Ohio’s largest wholly contained watershed.
