NASHVILLE, Tenn., Feb. 21, 2024 – U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Tennessee State Director Arlisa Armstrong today announced that USDA is investing more than $20.8 million in six projects to bring clean water, state-of-the-art infrastructure and economic growth to rural communities as part of President Biden’s Investing in America agenda.
“President Biden’s Investing in America agenda is making our economy work for working families and strengthening communities that for too long were left out or left behind,” State Director Armstrong said. “Today’s investments will help rural utility districts and communities provide clean drinking water and sanitary wastewater systems for families and businesses in rural areas for years to come.”
Rural Drinking Water and Wastewater Infrastructure
Today, USDA is awarding $644.2 million to help 158 rural utilities provide clean drinking water and sanitary wastewater systems for 913,000 people in rural areas. This funding builds on the $5.8 billion in Bipartisan Infrastructure Law funding for clean water from the Environmental Protection Agency that Vice President Harris announced yesterday in Pittsburgh.
The Department is making investments through the Solid Waste Management Grants Program to help organizations provide technical assistance and training for rural communities and utilities to improve solid waste facilities. The assistance helps communities protect their local watersheds and the health of people living in rural areas.
USDA is also financing projects through the Water and Waste Disposal Loan and Grant Program to help state and local governments, private nonprofits and federally recognized Tribes build and improve rural wastewater systems. The funding enables rural communities to expand access to clean and reliable drinking water, sanitary waste disposal and stormwater drainage.
In Tennessee:
- The Town of Stanton will use funding to increase water service along SR222 by Blue Oval City, Tennessee. The project will install a 12-inch water line to support infrastructure, including the city's fire station and large-scale daycare center for employees' children plus the Tennessee College of Applied Technology. Funds will also be used to expand the town of Stanton's sewer collection system and increase efficiency at the wastewater treatment plant. The collection system expansion will consist of 14,000 linear feet of new sewer line and the wastewater plant construction will consist of new plant headworks and treatment process. The project will benefit the more than 700 residents in the town of Stanton service area.
- Paris Utility Authority will use funding to replace water lines for the Paris BPU Water Department.
- Northeast Lawrence Utility District will use funding to replace approximately 30,000 linear feet of water line in the Northeast Lawrence Utility District's water distribution system. The district has had high water loss over the last few years. Replacing the old lines will help fix leaks and enable better water delivery service to customers.
- North Stewart Utility District will use funding to replace water lines that have reached the end of their useful life. It will also replace the District Office pump station and install two basins with flocculators in one and plate settlers in the second. This project will help ensure improved treatment and delivery of safe water to North Stewart Utility District customers.
- Bristol-Bluff City Utility District (BBCUD) will use funding to ensure compliance with the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation (TDEC) standards. The project will upgrade piping and materials to comply with state standards and improve overall system effectiveness. BBCUD currently is noncompliant in part of its water system with the state's fire-flow standard, caused by undersized and substandard pipes that leak and break.
- The City of Erin will use funding to provide additional financing to complete Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) improvements at the Erin City Hall.
These water infrastructure projects will benefit families and businesses in Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Delaware, Hawaii, Iowa, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Nevada, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, West Virigina, Wisconsin, Puerto Rico and the Northern Mariana Islands.
Rural Partners Network Awards
USDA is funding a variety of projects in underserved communities participating in the Rural Partners Network (RPN), including some made possible by the Inflation Reduction Act. These investments will expand access to jobs, business opportunities, quality health care, clean water and renewable energy.
About $76.6 million of the funding announced today will support 32 projects in Alaska, Georgia, Kentucky, New Mexico, North Carolina, West Virginia and Wisconsin. These projects will benefit small towns and cities, family farms and small businesses in RPN communities and neighboring communities in Tennessee.
In Tennessee:
- Dayspring Health Inc. will use a $746,351 Distance Learning and Telemedicine Grant to equip nine hub/end-user sites throughout Whitley County in southeastern Kentucky, and Campbell and Claiborne counties in eastern Tennessee with telemedicine pods and accessories. Medical Professionals at Dayspring Health Inc. will deliver primary care telehealth from specialists throughout the greater Kentucky and Tennessee regions to nine locations benefitting 4,120 individuals.
Since RPN’s launch in April 2022, the Biden-Harris Administration has provided approximately $2.6 billion to carry out a variety of economic development projects in RPN communities across 10 states and Puerto Rico. Federal agencies partnering with USDA have also provided more than $80 million to RPN communities during that same period.
A full list of projects from today’s announcement is available online.
USDA’s most recent Rural America at a Glance report, published in November 2023, signals that the Biden-Harris Administration’s investments in rural American infrastructure, jobs and overall recovery are working. Specifically, the report found that the rural population is growing after a decade of overall population loss, with growth of approximately a quarter percent from 2020 to 2022. It also showed that rural employment levels and annual growth rates have nearly returned to those seen in the years prior to the pandemic. In particular, the emergence of the clean energy economy is a growing employment sector, with clean energy jobs employing more than 243,000 workers in nonmetropolitan counties in 2021, and those jobs have continued to grow through the Biden-Harris Administration’s investments since. The rural population is also experiencing a decline in poverty. In 2021, 9.7 percent fewer nonmetropolitan counties experienced persistent poverty (county-level poverty rates of 20 percent or higher over the last 30 years) compared with a decade earlier.
USDA Rural Development provides loans and grants to help expand economic opportunities, create jobs and improve the quality of life for millions of Americans in rural areas. This assistance supports infrastructure improvements; business development; housing; community facilities such as schools, public safety and health care; and high-speed internet access in rural, tribal and high-poverty areas. Visit the Rural Data Gateway to learn how and where these investments are impacting rural America.
USDA touches the lives of all Americans each day in so many positive ways. Under the Biden-Harris Administration, USDA is transforming America’s food system with a greater focus on more resilient local and regional food production, fairer markets for all producers, ensuring access to safe, healthy and nutritious food in all communities, building new markets and streams of income for farmers and producers using climate-smart food and forestry practices, making historic investments in infrastructure and clean energy capabilities in rural America, and committing to equity across the Department by removing systemic barriers and building a workforce more representative of America. To learn more, visit www.usda.gov.
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