1. State Revolving Loan Fund detail
2. IDEQ planning grant program detail

The Idaho Department of Environmental Quality has awarded more than $5.9 million combined in loans and grants to five community water and wastewater systems.

Wastewater

Kingston-Cataldo Sewer District will use a construction loan of more than $1.43 million, from the department’s State Revolving Loan Fund, for the second phase of a wastewater project that includes expanding access roads to the treatment plant, according to a department news release. The loan is for 30 years at 1.5% simple interest.

The City of New Meadows was awarded $40,000 and the Viola Water and Sewer District $35,000 from the DEQ planning grant program. Total project costs are $80,000 for New Meadows and $70,000 for Viola.

Grants through the program cover up to half of total project cost. The grants are used to develop engineering reports that identify the most cost-effective, environmentally sound method to improve a system so it meets state and federal standards and maintains compliance, according to the department.

Drinking water

The city of Roberts was awarded a nearly $4.17 million construction loan to construct a building to house greensand filters and associated fixtures to help remove manganese. The city also will install an evaporation pond with pipeline and pumps to dispose of the filtrate.

The Hayden Lake Watershed Improvement District was awarded a $356,500 construction loan to identify sources of nutrients that promote algal blooms and to create a plan to develop mitigation strategies, according to the department.

Roberts and Hayden Lake financing is through DEQ’s emergent contaminant construction loan program. The loans carry a simple 0% interest rate and some loan forgiveness.