United States Department of Agriculture Rural Development announced today that a total of $27 million in Water and Environmental Program loan and grant fundings have been awarded to address sanitation issues in many rural Alaska communities.
Public Information Coordinator with USDA Rural Development, Larry Yerich…
Yerich: “The Rural Alaska Village Grant Program and the Water and Environmental Program, they are designed to help Alaskan villages, many of which are predominantly Alaska native, have access to and provide them with safe and reliable drinking water and waste disposal systems for their homes and businesses.”
A few highlighted projects that will be completed with this grant include water and waste disposal efforts in the cities of Bethel and Saint Mary’s, but these aren’t the only villages or towns receiving assistance. The timeline for each project in every city is different, depending on multiple variables.
Yerich: “Each individual recipient community or entity is going to vary with the scope of their project, what type of specific project that the funding is going towards.”
Across Alaska, a total of $27,048,866 was granted or loaned for sewer and solid waste projects, technical assistance and training, preliminary planning and engineering, as well as management.
