The state Board of Water and Natural Resources approved nearly nine million dollars in grants and loans for water and wastewater infrastructure projects in South Dakota. SDPB’s Jenifer Jones has more.
Mike Perkovich is the Program Administrator for the Water and Waste Funding Program with the Department of Environment and Natural Resources. He says the funds help communities build or maintain infrastructure to help provide safe drinking water and adequately treat wastewater. He says Rapid City is receiving the largest amount of money, with more than five and a half million dollars in grants and loans.
“Rapid City is the process of extending a line out to the airport to provide additional water to the airport,” Perkovich says. “There are several small communities between the city and the airport and they have poor water quality. So this money will be used to construct arterial lines off of that main airport line to serve some of those communities and individual homes in that area that don’t have a good source of water right now.”
Perkovich says grants and loans are awarded on a quarterly timetable.