CNMI getting $24.3M from EPA for water, wastewater
The CNMI is receiving $24.3 million in Clean Water and Safe Drinking Water grants for Fiscal Year 2024 from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to continue the upgrades to the municipal drinking water and wastewater systems and fortify stormwater protections, according to Delegate Gregorio Kilili C. Sablan (D-MP) over the weekend.
Sablan said in his e-kilili newsletter that the EPA announced Wednesday that the Marianas FY 2024 annual allocation for the Clean Water State Revolving Fund plus additional funding from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law including the Emerging Contaminant program totals $15,597,000.
Sablan said the Marianas Drinking Water SRF S allocations plus BIL funding for FY 2024 is $8,668,000.
He said this brings to a total of $24,265,000 in Water and Safe Drinking Water grants for the CNMI.
The delegate said allotments for the Marianas and other insular areas are based on the 1.5% set aside for the Marianas and other insular areas from the Clean Water Act and the Safe Drinking Water Act funds.
“I was first able to raise the set-aside for our areas to 1.5% in annual appropriations in 2010, though statutorily we are only eligible for 0.25% and 0.33%, respectively, from the two laws,” Sablan said.
On Nov. 15, 2021, President Joseph Biden signed the Infrastructure and Jobs Act, also referred to as the BIL, which provides $50 billion to the EPA to strengthen the nation’s drinking water, wastewater, and stormwater infrastructure—the single largest investment in water that the federal government has ever made.
Last Wednesday, acting EPA assistant administrator Bruno Pigott sent a memorandum to Region 1 to 10 Water Division directors that provides final allotment for the FY 2024 BIL SRF Supplemental and Emerging Contaminants Capitalization Grants, as well as from the fund appropriated under the Consolidated Appropriations Act for the Clean Water and Drinking Water SRFs.
Pigott said to date, the EPA has awarded over $12 billion in BIL SRF funding to states, territories, and tribes.
Gregorio Kilili C. Sablan
