McManus: CUC now receiving $30M a year of EPA grants
The Commonwealth Utilities Corp. used to get $7 million to $10 million in grants every year from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, but that number has now gone up to $30 million a year, according to EPA environmental engineer Hallie McManus.
In her presentation during the CUC board’s special meeting last Thursday McManus said EPA has been awarding water and wastewater infrastructure grants to CUC for the past 20-plus years. Since 2008, it has already awarded CUC about $150 million.
That has recently tripled in the past two years with the passage of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, said McManus, who also serves as the product officer for all the water and wastewater infrastructure grants that EPA awards CUC.
She said CUC is getting a huge grant increase in the next five years.
McManus said they just recently awarded their fiscal 2023 grant, which was about $27 million.
In addition, she said, they now have money for emerging contaminants on the clean water and drinking water side, as well as lead service line replacements.
The great thing about these grants, she said, is that CUC has the ability to use its discretion in what it chooses to fund with this money since CUC is eligible under the Omnibus Territories Act to consolidate its grants.
McManus said this is a “great opportunity” for CUC to make some much needed improvements on its water system, but this also comes with a lot of challenges, primarily the many projects facing CUC’s engineering team.
She is glad that CUC has been able to hire four or five new engineers on staff, but a “ton” of more work lies ahead.
“It will be triple the amount of work that they have been doing. And we don’t want them to be overwhelmed,” she said.
She said they want everyone to stay and be happy and not stressed. “So, I’m really glad to see that you’ve been able to hire some new faces,” McManus added.
Hallie McManus
