On Earth Day, Governor Gretchen Whitmer and the Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy (EGLE) announced a $290 million expansion of the MI Clean Water Plan with proceeds from the bipartisan, voter-approved 2002 Great Lakes Water Quality Protection Bond. The funds will expand state low-interest loans to local governments for drinking water and water management resources for their residents through an expansion of the state’s low-interest loan offerings.
Governor Whitmer said that during her tenure in office the state has invested over $4 billion to upgrade drinking water, stormwater, and wastewater facilities, supporting 57,000 jobs, but “we know we still have more work to do. “
This financing supports critical water infrastructure projects like lead service line removals, rehabilitation and upgrades to drinking water and wastewater plants, improvements to sewer systems, and much more. The $290 million will be split between the state’s Clean Water State Revolving Fund and Drinking Water State Revolving Fund and will be available through loans and low interest financing this year.
Even with the $290 million, the need from communities across the state for drinking water and sewage treatment far exceeds available resources.
- In Fiscal Year (FY) 2024 EGLE provided historic financing and funding opportunities to communities but was still only able to fund $1.7 billion of the over $5 billion in community requests.
- This funding shortfall will continue in FY 2025, where the department received over $3.5 billion in project requests from communities, but expects to have less than $720 million available after exhausting significant one-time federal resources.
- Most of the state’s water systems are over 50 years old, and a significant portion are approaching 100 years of service life. Recent reports have highlighted that Michigan has an annual gap of between $860 million to $1.1 billion in water infrastructure needs due to decades of deferred maintenance.
Current clean water funding is directed to help local government. What about the local housing associations with their privately managed well and water distribution systems? We live in the Harbor Hills Subdivision Association and are dealing with an aging water distribution system. 25 households are looking at over a $200,000 need to replace our water distribution system.