NORTH VERNON — About $14 million in federal stimulus funds and state grants have local officials hoping that many of the local wastewater treatment problems soon will be a thing of the past.
Jennings Northwest Regional Utilities is in line to receive a $7 million grant as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, according to a joint news release from State Rep. Dave Cheatham, D-North Vernon, and Sen. Johnny Nugent, R-Lawrenceburg.
The grant will be administered through the Indiana Finance Authority and used to complete an overhaul of JNRU’s ailing wastewater treatment plant and collection system.
“The current wastewater system has design flaws and needs to be updated in order to satisfy environmental regulations from the Indiana Department of Environmental Management and the Environmental Protection Agency,” Cheatham said.
“Without the use of these stimulus funds in the form of a grant, JNRU faces the prospect of costly fines and expensive repairs that would have been passed on to residents in the form of devastatingly high utility bills,” Nugent said.
The legislators had worked for some time to find help for JNRU’s customers, most of whom live in Country Squire Lakes.
Cheatham and Nugent convinced state officials of JNRU’s desperate situation.
“These stimulus funds will save residents from having to assume the financial burden and pay higher fees to fund necessary infrastructure improvements,” Cheatham said.
“This investment in wastewater infrastructure will help not only to serve current residents by improving water treatment quality, but also to prepare the Utility’s service area for future economic development opportunities,” Nugent noted.
$7 million state grant
Jeff Fish, JNRU’s manager, said on Friday that the utility is due to receive another $7 million grant from the Office of Community and Rural Affairs.
The two grants will combine to pay for a $14-million, 18-month project that Fish expects will begin in October.
Improvements cannot come too soon, Fish said. For years, JNRU annually has lost an average 2 to 3 percent of its customers.
Once the project is complete, Fish hopes to see the utility’s customer base grow.
The project entails overhauling about 90 percent of JNRU’s vacuum collection system by installing new components and better technology.
Upgrades to the collection system will cost about $10 million.
At the same time, JNRU wastewater treatment plant will be overhauled at a cost of about $4 million.
Fish said that the plant is ill-suited to Indiana winters and frequently freezes.
The project should not affect JNRU customers much, he said, but will come with brief interruptions of service.
Customers can follow the project’s progress by visiting JNRU’s frequently updated Web site.
Fish encouraged any customers with questions or concerns to attend JNRU board meetings and call or visit the JNRU office.
He said the prospect of having a wastewater treatment system that works like it should is “totally mind-boggling. “It already is seeming kind of odd and surreal.” He commended state and county officials and JNRU’s staff and board members for working to find a solution. “We’ve spent a lot of years … trying to put this thing back on its feet,” he said.
