The state of Wisconsin stands to benefit from an announcement by the EPA funneling over six billion dollars from the bipartisan infrastructure bill for clean drinking water access.
Wausau Mayor Katie Rosenberg says Tuesday's announcement was a direct result of a recent summit at the White House regarding lead service line replacement, which she and Milwaukee's Caviler Johnson participated in.
“I think that the administration received our feedback loud and clear that we’re really excited to get going on this but we need the funding that coincides with it. Really, earmarking these dollars for water infrastructure is really important for us”, said Rosenberg.
She says it's still unclear how much Wisconsin will receive from the allotment, but you can expect her city to be one of the first in line to apply for the funding through the DNR.
“Through their normal safe drinking water loans, clean drinking water stuff, they’ve got a great process, but that deadline is coming up in June”
Rosenberg says city leaders are going to work quickly to apply for the funding with the DNR safe drinking water program later this year.
“That we can put in front of both our utility commission and probably the finance committee at the same time, so that we’re all dealing with the same information and we can all be excited together, I hope, so that we can push forward and replace these lead pipes.”
(Water 3 :10 Q:and replace these lead pipes)
Rosenberg says the utility's goal is to find a way to leverage the dollars so they can reduce costs for homeowners as they look to replace some eight thousand lead service lines city-wide, a project that could cost up to 80 million dollars. You can expect discussion on the matter in the next few weeks.
