Cities and counties apply for $435 million from state's water and sewer ARPA fund

by Alex Rozier, Mississippi Today
October 5, 2022

The city of Jackson requested the largest amount of money, $36 million, of any city or county from a designated water and sewer fund that came through the American Rescue Plan Act.

State lawmakers established the fund earlier this year to help pay for infrastructure needs by matching what money cities and counties received directly from ARPA.

In total, Mississippi's cities and counties applied for $435 million from the Mississippi Municipality & County Water Infrastructure Grant Program, equaling nearly all of the $450 million the legislature put into the fund.

In their applications, cities and counties list out specific water and sewer projects and include funding amounts from their own direct ARPA appropriations. Then, the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality, which oversees the program, can provide up to a 1-to-1 funding match, or 2-to-1 for places that received less than $1 million in direct funds.

Jackson applied for a $23 million match to help fix its drinking water system, which would give it $46 million in total. On the wastewater side, the city is requesting a $12 million match to give it $24 million total.

Hinds County did not submit an application, according to a list provided by MDEQ. The county agreed to use $17 million of its ARPA money for Jackson's water system, WLBT reported last month.

Half of the funds sought in the applications, or $216 million, were for wastewater projects, $139 million were for drinking water projects, and $79 million for stormwater projects.

The city of Gulfport is seeking the most money for wastewater improvements, at $26 million. For stormwater projects, Rankin County applied for the largest amount at $21 million.

An MDEQ spokesperson said the agency anticipates that cities and counties will receive funds by the end of the year, and that there will also be a second round of applications for remaining money.

MDEQ provided a breakdown of how much entities are seeking for different projects. Use the tables below for a breakdown by spending area:

This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.