Within hours of returning to Richmond for a special session, the General Assembly budget committees adopted the Governor’s plan to spend $3.5 billion in Federal Covid-19 emergency aid. Below are the plans for investment in water and water infrastructure from a Virginia Press Release last week.
According
to that plan Governor Ralph Northam announced that Virginia plans to allocate
$411.5 million of the $4.3 Billion that Virginia received in federal American
Rescue Plan (ARP) funding to reduce water pollution and increase access to
clean water across the Commonwealth.
The
proposal includes $186.5 million for improving wastewater treatment and
nutrient removal at wastewater treatment plants, $125 million to reduce
combined sewer overflows funding projects in Richmond, Alexandria, and
Lynchburg, and $100 million to assist water systems in small and disadvantaged
communities.
These
announced investments in water infrastructure are in addition to the more than $300
million in ARP funding that the Commonwealth sent to towns in June and $2.3
billion made available to Virginia’s 133 counties and cities directly from the
federal government to meet local response and recovery needs, which include
improving access to clean drinking water and to supporting vital wastewater and
stormwater infrastructure. These projects are being funded by the national debt
instead of the local rate payers needing to fund maintenance and improvement of
their utilities. Virginia long ago abandoned "pay as you go."
“Protecting
the environment, and particularly providing for sanitary disposal of
wastewater, is critical to public health and the economy,” said Secretary
of Natural and Historic Resources Matthew J. Strickler. “These investments
will put us even closer to restoring the Chesapeake Bay, and will clean up
streams and improve septic and sewer systems across the Commonwealth.” Rural and semi-rural residents should look for funding to septic upgrades becoming available.
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