California Wastewater Project Gets Record $1.6B EPA Loan
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has awarded $1.6 billion in Clean Water Act State Revolving Funds (SRF) - the largest block of financing it has ever issued - for a $2-billion upgrade of the Sacramento regional wastewater treatment plant in Elk Grove, Calif., which broke ground on May 28.
Construction, set to take eight years, will bring the 181- million-gallon-per-day plant to advanced treatment. It has been one of the largest sources of ammonia and nitrate pollution in the San Francisco Bay-Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta estuary, says EPA.
Louisiana Legislators Approve $884M for Gulf Coast Restoration
The Louisiana legislature has approved the Coastal Protection Restoration Authority's $884-million fiscal 2016 annual plan for several coastal restoration projects in the Gulf of Mexico.
The plan, approved May 19, allocates $588 million for construction for several large projects, including $147 million for the Caminada headland Beach and Dune Restoration project below Port Fourchon, and $104 million for the combined Mississippi River Long distance Sediment Pipeline and Bayou Dupont Phase Two marsh creation projects. The project also provides for the mobilization of construction funds for two barrier island projects: the $111 million Caillou Lake Headlands, and the $101 million Shell Island West. The plan provides a $159-million increase over the funds allocated for fiscal 2015.
