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A low-interest federal loan of $8.42 million and a $1.2 million grant will allow the Beardstown Sanitary District to renovate its wastewater treatment facility. Beardstown, in Cass County, and Palmyra, in Macoupin County, are two of the Illinois communities that will benefit from $22.5 million in federal funding announced last week by U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin''s office for rural development projects. The interest rate on Beardstown''s loan is 1.625 percent over a 40-year period. Combined with a $100,000 grant from the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity, this will cover the entire $9.72 million estimated project cost, according to Reggie Benton of Benton and Associates in Jacksonville, the engineering firm for the project. “The United States Environmental Protection Agency permitting process requires the Beardstown Sanitary District to increase the hydraulic capacity of the wastewater treatment plant, reduce the discharge concentrations and treat for new pollutants,” Benton said. “The district must construct much larger treatment units that can meet the new stricter permit limits.” The required improvements include new aeration and reaction tanks, new chemical feed equipment for phosphorous removal, two 70-foot-diameter clarifiers, and three buildings to house chemicals, electrical equipment, pumps and the sludge-management system, Benton said. Beardstown Sanitary District Superintendent Wells Petersen said bids for the project were let on Aug. 18 and will be opened Sept. 20. The construction timetable will be determined after discussions with the successful bidder, he said. “This will be a good thing for the community. From an environmental standpoint, this new system will allow us to treat the water better and treat substantially more water,” Petersen said. “This will allow room for more businesses or residents to come to town. We are also going to be removing more phosphorous and nitrogen so it won''t end up in the Mississippi Delta region.” Petersen said water rates for Beardstown customers will increase in two installments. The first residential rate increase of $8.12 takes effect in the September and October billing cycle, so it will show up on customers'' November bills. The second increase of $16.10 will likely occur in the June-July 2018 billing cycle. The existing residential rate is $18.59. Commercial customers will also see a proportional rate increase, Petersen said. The plant''s screening and grit-removal process was upgraded in 2012, he said, but the primary treatment facility was last upgraded in 1980. The JBS USA meat processing plant in Beardstown has its own standalone treatment system, Petersen added. Palmyra will receive a $726,000 low-interest loan and a $269,000 grant to construct a new 75,000-gallon water tank and to replace aging water mains throughout the village. It will apply for an Illinois Department of Commerce sand Economic Opportunity grant to make up the remainder of the estimated $1.4 million project cost, according to Benton and Associates, which is also the engineering firm for the Palmyra project. |
