Progress forecast for river projects – Alton Telegraph

EAST ALTON Improvements are coming to river infrastructure, according to officials speaking Wednesday at a Mississippi River Corridor Summit on Water Infrastructure Funding in East Alton.

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency officials hosted the summit along with state co-regulators and the Mississippi River Cities & Towns Initiative mayors at the National Great Rivers Research and Education Center Confluence Field Station.

Zealan Hoover, Senior Advisor on Infrastructure Implementation to the EPA, said the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law mandates that 49 percent of the $43 billion provided through Drinking Water and Clean Water State Revolving Funds must be distributed as grants and forgivable loans to qualifying disadvantaged communities.

"Not every program is going to get dollars out the door in a day," Hoover said. "But collectively, across the hundreds of programs in the infrastructure bill, you're going to see progress every week as we move this forward."

EPA Region 5 Administrator Debra Shore oversees Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, Wisconsin and 35 Native American tribes. According to Shore, the infrastructure law will provide the 10 states that border the Mississippi River with nearly $1 billion in 2022 alone, while creating more than 20,000 jobs.

"When we talk about building a better America, this is what we mean," Shore said.

Funding from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law will provide significant benefits to Illinois, especially to our small and disadvantaged communities that have limited resources to meet essential wastewater and drinking water infrastructure needs, said Illinois EPA Director John J. Kim. We welcome this opportunity to work with our federal partners and meet with local officials, so we can better address the challenges these communities face and provide the necessary resources to get the funding where it is needed most.

Lewis and Clark Community College President Ken Trzaska noted this is the 20th year for the NGRREC, founded through a collaborative partnership between the college, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and the Illinois Natural History Survey. The center aspires to be a leader in scholarly research, education and outreach related to the interconnectedness of large rivers, their floodplains, watersheds and their associated communities.

"It has continued to grow and to celebrate the remarkable work of partnership along the Mississippi River, and along rivers across the county," Trzaska said.

The summit focused on engaging MRCTI mayors in water and wastewater challenges and needs, especially those with equity and environmental justice concerns such as small rural communities. East St. Louis Mayor Robert Eastern, and MRCTI Illinois State Chair, said his city's biggest challenge is technical assistance.

"Our infrastructure and sewer systems are dated, over 100 years old," he said. "There needs to be a real, intentional, comprehensive plan working towards the freshwater flow from uphill areas."

Alton Mayor David Goins noted similar freshwater flow issues because Alton is an area with a lot of hills.

"It ends up with a lot of our streets being flooded," Goins said. "The infrastructure being improved will be great."

Grafton Mayor Mike Morrow said his public works department has just four employees and the city's infrastructure "is that of the 1800s."

"I hear that we got all this money coming out, and we're all excited," Morrow said. "But what I'm also hearing is that you're overwhelmed. "I will tell you, we are overwhelmedbecause I can count my staff on one hand."

dylan.suttles@thetelegraph.com

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Progress forecast for river projects - Alton Telegraph