The Farmdale Sanitation District, which will serve about 1,500 in southwestern Franklin County, is getting $900,000 in federal funds for design and construction of a new wastewater treatment plant.
Franklin County Judge-Executive Ted Collins says he was notified Tuesday from U.S. Rep. Ben Chandler’s office about the funding.
“This is very good news,” Collins said.
There are 10 package treatment plants currently serving customers in the area, “and the likelihood for them to fail is pretty strong,” Collins said.
In April 2007, Kendra Palmer, environmental director with the Franklin County Health Department, said, “None of them work very well.”
Collins said the $900,000 would be a 55/45 matching grant. He said a portion of the match is in the budget, and he’s going to check to see if the county road department could do some in-kind work such as grading and site preparation.
The Farmdale Sanitation District also was notified recently of a $550,000 grant through the state Division of Water, according to Caroline Collins, secretary of the Farmdale Sanitation District board.
Caroline Collins said the recent funding is an important step toward a cleaner environment. The board is currently looking for land to purchase, she said.
The treatment plant will be built in an area west of U.S. 127 and south of Interstate 64.
The $900,000 was in the $32.2 billion appropriations measure for the Department of the Interior, the Environmental Protection Agency and related agencies that was signed by President Barack Obama last week.