Water stimulus: Federal money could advance projects in SE Wisconsin - Pacific Business News (Honolulu):

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million into local municipalities’ water utilities, wastewater plants and government agencies to upgrade underground and shoreline The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources controls the majorithy of the federal stimulus funds dedicated to clean water and coastaplhabitat spending. By the end of August, a DNR spokesman said the morethan $300 million will be allocated to municipalitiesz for an undetermined numbert of projects. The commission is keeping its fingers crossecd about receiving a portion ofthe $105.9 milliomn in stimulus funds that will be parcelec out through the Clean Water Statse Revolving Fund, said Kevin Shafer, executive director of MMSD.
“The truthu is it’s a drop in the bucket of what’ needed for clean water projects,” said Shafer. DNR currentlhy has a statewide list of cleajn water projects thattotal $1.2 said Shafer. MMSD’s projects on the DNR list are rankee in themiddle one-third of the agency’s priority ranking, but Shafer expects a few of MMSD’sd projects to get bumped up on the list because of the stimuluas funding. “This is a step in the right direction because a year agowe didn’t have any of this money,” he said.
The monegy allocated for the clean water and coastal habitat restoration work is funder bythe $787 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act that Congress passed and President Barack Obama signed in Januarg to help stimulate the sluggish economy. So far, the majority of federalk money for infrastructure improvements is being spenr ontransportation projects. According to the Wisconsin Recoverg andReinvestment Office, Wisconsinb road and bridge builders are receiving $694 milliom in stimulus money for more than 210 Rich Meeusen, chairman, president and chief executive officerf for , Brown Deer, looks at the stimulus monet earmarked nationally for cleah water, drinking water and coastal region improvements and wonders why roughlu twice as much is allocated to transportation.
Ther are water systems, wastewater plantd and pumping stations in large metropolitan areaa around the country that are more than 100years old, said With water becoming one of the nation’ws scarcest and valuable commodities, Meeusen said leaks in existingb infrastructure are wasting it. The Wisconsin DNR’s Drinking Waterf State Revolving Fund isdistributing $37 milliomn to municipal drinking water construction projects. A portion of the money is beinv set aside forgreen infrastructure, watefr conservation and energy efficiency Of the money being spent on drinking water, Meeusen expects his company may benefit througb the installation of new water meters.
Metering projects are important as a componentf ofgreen projects, said Meeusen, becausee they allow communities to collect higher rates for water Several communities in Waukeshaw County are increasing waterr rates as a conservation measure, includint the city of Waukesha and village of Butler. “When consumers better understand how much waterf they are using and are payinhg slightlyhigher amounts, they will more readily conserve more he said. Other categories of businesses expectedr to benefit from theclean water, drinking wateer and coastal restoration programs are companied that specialize in undergroune piping infrastructure and large earth moving MMSD’s Shafer said.
Because the state has not yet announced whered the money is companies are still waiting to submit bidson water-relatedx projects. The city of Brookfield didn’t apply for stimulusa dollars related to the Drinking Water StatesRevolving Fund, but the city did seek $3.6 million for two wastewate treatment projects from the Clea n Water State Revolving Fund, said Tom Grisa, Brookfield’ director of public works.
The monety will be used at Brookfield’s , whicnh is a regional waste treatment facilithy that handles waste from half the city and the town of a portion of Menomonee Falls and the villagw and city of While Grisa has not been informex by DNRthat Brookfield’s two projectxs have been selected, the state has rankedd both Fox River Water Pollutiom Control Center projects in the top 10 percentr of an estimated 400 projects that are on the applicationb list. “We like our chances, and one of the projects was not goinfg to happenuntil 2010, so it truly is a stimulues project,” Grisa said.
The one statre water-related stimulus project that is not in the handds of the DNR isthe $60 million Tribal Water Intake and Treatmenft Facility Program. The Wisconsin Department of Administration is administeriny the program and the money will be distributedr throughthe U.S. Department of Interiof Bureau of Reclamation. The stimulus moneyy set aside for Coastal Habitat Restoration Grantstotalsa $170 million. The coastal restoration grants are aimedat shovel-readty projects that the deems ecologically importantg for climate change.