New Jersey Discharger - Vol. 3 No. 1

	Vol. 3 No. 1 June 1995
A Newsletter About New Jersey's Water Quality Programs

EPA grants $50 million to New Jersey for local water pollution control projects

The State of New Jersey recently received a $50 million grant from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for its State Revolving Fund Program (SRF). New Jersey uses this funding to provide local governments with interest-free loans for financing publicly-owned wastewater treatment facilities. The $50,333,085 grant will be matched by New Jersey's required 20 percent amount ($10,066,617).

This is the eighth grant awarded to New Jersey for the SRF, which was authorized by the Water Quality Act of 1987 to replace EPA's construction grant program. EPA has granted a total of $545 million to New Jersey under this program, which represents 5 percent of the national total.

"There are direct environmental benefits to upgrading wastewater treatment facilities. The better the treatment, the cleaner the end-of-pipeline discharge," said Jeanne M. Fox, EPA Region 2 Administrator. "But these upgrades are expensive, so SRF funding is an essential part of local efforts to improve treatment."

Thus far, DEP has committed almost $585 million in interest-free loans to local governments for wastewater projects, while the New Jersey Wastewater Treatment Trust has loaned over $625 million with market based interest rates.

Fox presented a check to Robert C. Shinn, Jr., Commissioner of the New Jersey DEP, at the City of Trenton's water treatment facility. This facility has received over $17 million in loans from the New Jersey Wastewater Treatment Financing Program and was the first project funded under the state's SRF program to address sludge management at a water treatment plant (see New Jersey Discharger, March 1995).

Articles appearing in the New Jersey Discharger may be reprinted provided source credit is given.
Tom Cosmas converted the original text into this HTML and is willing to accept most of the blame for any typo errors.
Last revision 4/15/96