With the City of Greenville’s latest award of $7.15 million in American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds, it is one step closer to the overall improvement of water and sewer infrastructure.
The Mississippi Municipality and County Water Infrastructure (MCWI) grant program, established through the April 26, 2022 passing of Senate Bill 2822, made $450 million of ARPA funding available for projects encompassing drinking water, wastewater and stormwater.
The MCWI grant program also underscores assistance to “economically disadvantaged communities, as well as projects promoting regional development.”
As highlighted during Tuesday’s regular meeting of the Greenville City Council, the MCWI program allowed for municipalities to apply for matching funds for local ARPA fiscal recovery funds.
Based on the ARPA funds in the amount of $7.03 million the City had already received, it was eligible to apply for a 1 to 1 match of those funds, bringing them to a total award of roughly $14 million in ARPA funding.
“Through Burle Engineers, we’ve made a number of applications and I’d like to congratulate them. And, with this particular grant, we are renovating some major components at the Wastewater Treatment Plant,” said Councilman and Vice Mayor Al Brock, who presided over Tuesday’s meeting in Mayor Errick Simmons’ absence.
Darrell Martinek of Burle Engineers noted in all, eight applications were submitted to the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality (MDEQ), which manages the MCWI program, to secure the matching grant funds.
MDEQ also acts as the regulatory entity for the program.
In addition, MDEQ determines eligibility based on submission of applications for match funds and ranks eligible applications.
“Out of the eight projects, there was only one that was not funded,” Martinek pointed out, which was the stormwater project.
The system by which MDEQ ranked applications, according to SB2822, included the following factors: “the environmental impact of the proposed project; the proposed project's ability to address noncompliance with state/federal requirements; the extent to which the project promotes economic development; the number of people served by the project (both new and existing users); impacts of the proposed project on disadvantaged/overburdened communities; the grant applicant's prior efforts to secure funding to address the proposed project's objectives; the grant applicant's proposed contribution of other funds or in-kind cost-sharing to the proposed project; the grant applicant's long-term plans for the financial and physical operation and maintenance of the project; and the grant applicant's capacity to initiate construction in a timely manner and complete the proposed project by the deadline specified by the United States Department of Treasury rules for ARPA funds.”
Martinek said summarily, the state ranked projects in that particular manner because it wanted the projects to meet the demand of the highest number of affected people in the county or municipality.
