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The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is giving Arkansas $838,000 in grant funding to help communities address stormwater and sewer infrastructure.
The federal grant is part of a larger $80 million federal disbursement through the Sewer Overflow and Stormwater Reuse Municipal Grant program. It will be equally divided between federal fiscal years 2025 and 2026, according to a news release. Money will be given to the state to disburse to Arkansas communities as it sees fit.
The grants will allow communities to capture and manage stormwater to help prevent contaminants, including untreated sewage, from polluting nearby waterways, according to a news release.
According to a 2022 agency estimate, Arkansas needs an estimated $5.4 billion worth of sewer improvements over the next 20 years. The state approved $154 million in loans for water and wastewater infrastructure upgrades in November, which would serve more than 810,000 Arkansans.
Over the past ten years, the state has doled out nearly $4 billion in water and wastewater infrastructure loans for roughly 1,800 projects.
Lucas Dufalla
Lucas Dufalla covers the Mississippi River Basin for the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. A 2024 graduate of Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine, he has worked for news organizations in Pennsylvania and New England. He is also a Report for America Corps member.
