$1.9 million in grants to aid water systems
Staff writer
Three water and sewer providers in the county will receive state grants totaling $1.9 million.
Marion County Improvement District No. 2 at the county lake will receive $458,880.
Treasurer Ed Burnett said the grant would be used to replace 232 check valves in its pressurized sewer system.
“The system was installed in the late ’80s, and they are starting to fail,” Burnett said. “We applied for a grant to replace every valve to every resident on our system.”
Work has not yet begun.
“We hope to award a contract this spring,” Burnett said.
The largest of the three grants, at $1,414,700, was awarded to Marion County Rural Water District No. 4, west of Hillsboro.
It’s “functioning well beyond capacity, risking a service outage,” Victoria Asbury, manager of government relations for Kansas Water Office said.
The grant will replace 892 manual-read meters with new meters and add 13 regional electronic-read meters to assist with leak detection.
It will also replace the two water tower pumps with higher capacity, energy-efficient pumps and construct a new pumphouse.
The district serves 1,983 residents.
The City of Marion will receive a $50,000 technical assistance grant to complete a preliminary engineering report, feasibility study and rate study.
A report will be generated and submitted to Kansas Department of Health and Environment for identification of improvements needed, Asbury said.
“Critical improvements include water treatment plant replacement and facility improvements targeting water production quality, pressure and energy efficiency,” Asbury said. “A professional water rate study will be completed as part of the feasibility study to evaluate the alternatives and the substantial income increases that could be required to finance the proposed project.”