Good News

July 23, 2009

$355M set for water projects around area

Times Leader staff

The state has targeted $355 million for 111 clean-water projects, including several in the northeast region, Gov. Ed Rendell announced Tuesday.

Allocated through the state’s PENNVEST program, $248 million will be available in low-interest loans, while the remaining $107 million in grants is the program’s second infusion of funding from the federal American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

The largest allocation is a $30.7 million loan to expand the Lackawanna River Basin Sewer Authority’s wastewater-treatment plant to reduce nitrogen and phosphorous discharges. The plant would also eliminate combined sewer overflows to reduce direct river contamination.

Funds also allocated locally were:

• A $300,000 grant to the Pennsylvania Urban & Community Forestry Council for 1,000 trees in 13 communities in Lackawanna County to reduce storm water runoff.

• A $131,044 grant to Lake Township, Luzerne County, to resurface Wesley and Bear Hollow roads to reduce runoff.

• A $185,000 grant to the Luzerne Conservation District to eliminate storm water runoff from its site by constructing a 10,000-gallon rainwater harvest system, a 230-foot storm water infiltration trench and installing 8,200 square feet of porous pavement.

• An $85,600 grant to Factoryville, Wyoming County, to install a green parking lot at the Factoryville Borough and Clinton Township Joint Municipal Park.

• A $2.8 million grant to Hazleton to replace more than a mile of deteriorated water distribution mains, construct a new 88,000-gallon water storage tank and new water treatment facilities.

• A $1.8 million loan to the Lackawanna River Basin Sewer Authority to upgrade a sewer line and eliminate a storm water inflow.

• $3.1 million and $985,501 loans to the Lower Lackawanna Valley Sanitary Authority to construct a combined-sewer overflow and install 1,500 feet of sewer collection lines, respectively, to eliminate three existing overflows that are discharging untreated wastewater

• A $2.7 million loan to Olyphant to install nearly three miles of sewer lines to eliminate discharges of raw sewage.

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