SOUTH JERSEY (KYW Newsradio) — A half-billion dollar loan from the federal government is being used to rebuild and upgrade water systems throughout New Jersey.
The loan from the Environmental Protection Agency is the first offered under the new State Infrastructure Financing Authority Water Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act (SWIFIA) program.
“With EPA’s low-interest WIFIA loan, New Jersey will invest in over 90 communities across the Garden State and create about 16,000 jobs while saving approximately $62.5 million,” said Radhika Fox, the agency’s assistant administrator for water.
New Jersey’s water infrastructure is old and many systems need to be replaced or need major upgrades, according to Department of Environmental Protection Commissioner Shawn LaTourette.
“New Jersey’s problems are not unlike the problems facing many states. It is the age of America’s bones, and they are failing,” LaTourette said.
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The $500 million will be available through low-interest loans for townships and other water systems, he explained. According to the EPA, projects in 36 small communities and 39 disadvantaged communities throughout the state will receive funding.
Those projects include, according to LaTourette, “improvements to drinking water systems as well as to publicly owned treatment works, sewer systems and stormwater systems … the projects that receive funding could be in both of those buckets.”
However, he said this half-billion is just a drop in the bucket of what’s really needed. LaTourette estimates the state needs about $30 billion over the next decade or so to do all the work necessary.
The loans will be just one component to this as grants and other state funding will also be available.