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Washington County will receive a $4.4 million loan and loan forgiveness on $4 million of that amount in order to move forward on a wastewater pump station upgrade project that's been on the county's want-to-do list for years.
The work will target pump stations affecting Ohio 339 from Barlow to Belpre; Cherry Blossom Lane, Walnut Ridge Drive and Teri Lane areas of Little Hocking; and the Broughton Lane and Iroquois Drive areas of Devola.
The county sewer system has a total of 24 lift stations. Because of budget constraints in the past, many haven't received needed upgrades or service since they were installed. There are cases where aging infrastructure needs to be replaced entirely, according to assessments the county listed in its 2023 goals.
The money also will allow installation of a SCADA system, an acronym for Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition. In the "smart" sewer system, each pump will have remote units that measure effluent volume and send the information back to a master station. The master station will display the collected data and allow an operator to perform tasks remotely.
The system is designed to prevent overflows, determining when there is a high amount of wastewater that needs to be switched to another pump site.
The money is coming from the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency's Water Control Pollution Loan Fund. County Engineer Roger Wright made the news public at the Washington County Commission's Thursday morning meeting. Wright also had Wastewater Superintendent Joseph White attend the meeting and share the credit for getting the funding.
Wright said the two of them had spent considerable time double checking data, details and conditions for all the lift stations, plus doing the engineering work required to make the project ready to bid, or shovel-ready, before applying for the loan.
White is convinced that was one of the determining factors in their success.
"We did our homework and had it ready to go," he said.
County Commissioner Charlie Schilling said the thoroughness of the loan application and the fact that it was successful might help open up more funding. Commissioner James Booth said part of the plan is to use the same brand of pump in all the stations, and they're ones that are manufactured in Ohio.
"If a replacement is needed, it's going to be two hours away, not halfway around the world," he said.