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SANFORD – The Florida Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) recently
awarded $5 million to the city of Sanford for stormwater management. The funds,
part of DEP’s Clean Water State Revolving Fund (CWSRF), will go to the
construction of a stormwater retention pond and new culverts to divert the
stormwater.
This project will alleviate the health and safety concerns associated with
flooding in primarily minority and low-income residential areas. The retention
pond will help clean the stormwater that flows into Lake Monroe.
The funds awarded to Sanford are part of the approximately $212 million
awarded to Florida from the federal American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of
2009 (ARRA) to help local governments finance improvements to wastewater,
stormwater and drinking water facilities essential to protecting public health
and the environment across the state. Florida is one of the first states to have
met all the requirements necessary to receive the full amount of ARRA funds to
support both the CWSRF as well as the Drinking Water State Revolving Fund (DWSRF).
“In order to protect water quality and public health for our citizens, it is
essential that we invest in our wastewater, stormwater and drinking water
infrastructure. The stimulus funds advance our ongoing efforts to provide needed
funding for infrastructure to local communities,” said DEP Secretary Michael W.
Sole. “We have had a tremendous demand for this ARRA funding, which will help
build valuable public projects.”
Sanford was one of the communities recently approved to receive these funds
under DEP’s CWSRF and DWSRF loan programs. There are now 48 projects in 43
Florida communities scheduled to receive ARRA money to help build critical
drinking water, wastewater and stormwater infrastructure.
DEP has now committed $197 million of the $212 million in available CWSRF and
DWSRF ARRA funding. There is $15 million in drinking water funds remaining for
applicants as they complete the planning, design and permitting necessary to
begin construction. Qualifying drinking water projects will be selected for the
remaining ARRA funds, based on their readiness and priority, at a future public
hearing. DEP will also continue to work with all applicants to help them apply
for other funding as it becomes available.
DEP received more than $800 million in requests for the $80 million of ARRA
drinking water project funds and more than $1.5 billion in requests competing
for $132.3 million in ARRA wastewater and stormwater funding.
DEP established its SRF programs, under agreements with the U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency, to provide low-interest financing to plan,
design and build wastewater, stormwater and drinking water systems. Funded by
federal capitalization grants, state matching funds, loan repayments, interest
earnings, and periodic bond issues, SRF loans are offered at interest rates
substantially below current market rates and help make loans affordable.
Repayments from earlier loans are used to make new loans, allowing the program
to operate in perpetuity.
Since 1999, DEP has invested more than $3.5 billion to upgrade and improve
drinking water and wastewater facilities and clean up stormwater pollution,
funding close to 2,100 projects statewide. More than $2.6 billion of this amount
has come from the SRF programs.
For more information on the State Revolving Funds, visit:
www.dep.state.fl.us/water/wff.
For a complete list of communities scheduled to receive ARRA funding, visit:
www.dep.state.fl.us/secretary/news/2009/05/0522_02.htm.
For more information about Florida’s use of the federal recovery dollars made
available through the ARRA of 2009, please visit
www.FlaRecovery.com. |
2010 State of Florida