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SPRINGFIELD – The Kishwaukee Water Reclamation District in DeKalb was recently awarded a $7.1 million state loan to consolidate the Village of Malta and Kishwaukee Community College’s wastewater treatment facilities.
According to a news release from the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency, the reclamation district was awarded a $7,122,910 forgivable loan for the consolidation. The loan will fund a plan to decommission Malta’s and the college’s wastewater treatment facilities and connect their service to the Kishwaukee Water Reclamation District, which is located in DeKalb.
The consolidation is expected to reduce annual expenses for users of the district’s facilities, and future costs will be spread among more users to avoid additional substantial rate increases, the release states.
The Kishwaukee Water Reclamation District loan also qualified for $2,068,436 in principal forgiveness, according to the IEPA. Projects funded in fiscal year 2022 receive an interest rate of 1.11% for both wastewater and drinking water loans.
The loan allotment was part of a recent statewide allocation of more than $65.6 million from the state EPA in water infrastructure loans to local governments and sanitary districts distributed from October through December of 2022.
The Illinois EPA State Revolving Fund Program provides low-interest loans, which fund wastewater, stormwater and drinking water projects, the release states.
The IEPA recently awarded the city of Sycamore a $1.7 million forgivable loan for lead service line replacement, part of the more than $5.3 million distributed statewide for that program.
“Communities throughout Illinois continue to face the challenges of aging wastewater and drinking water infrastructure,” said Director John J. Kim in a news release. “The Illinois EPA State Revolving Fund provides cost-saving loans to communities and water reclamation districts to meet the needs of their residents and customers.”
The EPA fund includes two loan programs: the Water Pollution Control Loan Program which funds both wastewater and stormwater projects, and the Public Water Supply Loan Program for drinking water projects.
The programs receive federal capitalization funding annually, which is combined with state matching funds, interest earnings, repayment money and the sale of bonds, to form funds for infrastructure projects, the release states. The state matching funds through 2024 are provided through Gov. JB Pritzker’s Rebuild Illinois Capital Plan.