CASPER, Wyo. — The Casper City Council will seek three grants from the State Loan and Investment Board totaling roughly $27.8 million for a variety of local improvement projects.
One of the proposed loans is for the second phase of the city’s North Platte Sanitary Sewer rehabilitation project. The city is seeking a $2.8 million loan from the Clean Water State Revolving fund. If approved, the loan will carry a 1.25% interest rate. Once the project is completed, the loan is scheduled to be paid off with annual payments over a 30-year period.
The city will use the funds to address a sinkhole that was discovered in January that was caused by corrosion of the top section of 30-inch reinforced concrete pipes. The money will also help fund sewer rehabilitation work along 13th Street near Garden Creek.
Funding for the loan is currently budgeted for in the fiscal year 2025 budget.
The council also voted to apply for a $15 million loan for screw pump replacements and other improvements at the Wastewater Treatment Plant.
The pumps are designed to operate individually and are capable of pumping the total flow of wastewater entering the plant. However, city staff report that the pumps began failing in 2007 and saw other complications in 2024. By late January 2025, one of the pipes was unable to pump all the wastewater entering the treatment plant.
“The critical nature of these pumps necessitates their prompt replacement,” a city memo from wastewater operations officer Krista Johnston states. “Delaying the replacement will put the WWTP at risk of being unable to pump wastewater to the headworks and could result in the need for bypass pumping.”
The loan will also be used to replace pump motors, gearboxes, gates, actuators, the building’s HVAC system and more.
The loan will have an interest rate of 0.5%. It will be paid off over a 20-year period beginning in January 2026.
The third loan request is for $10 million from the Drinking Water State Revolving Fund, and will be used for the city’s reservoir replacement project.
The city reservoir is a 10,000,000-gallon in-ground concrete structure that serves as the primary water storage component in the distribution system. However, city officials hope to replace the below-ground reservoir with two above-ground water tanks. According to city staff, this was planned for in the city’s 2020 master plan.
The city has received grant funding for a portion of the project, and is seeking the loan for additional funding. The project is estimated to cost roughly $17 million, with grant funds accounting for about $5.6 million of that.
The loan will carry a 1.5% interest rate and will be paid off over the next 20 years with funds collected through water utility fees.
