JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (KFVS) – The Missouri Department of Natural Resources awarded $410 million to help Missouri communities, including some in the Heartland, improve water infrastructure.

The following southeast Missouri departments applied for and will receive the funding.

Funding for drinking water infrastructure:

• Hayti – $5 million
• City of Hayti Heights – $1,687,900
• City of Potosi – $1,665,000
• Van Buren – $5 million
• Public Water and Sewage District No. 4 of Wayne and Butler Counties – $1,098,000

Funding for waste water infrastructure:

• City of Steele – $4,999,100
• City of Neelyville – $2,010,999
• City of Marble Hill – $4,051,249
• City of East Prairie – $4,850,000

Funding for lead service line inventories:

• Hayti – $200,000
• Charleston – $200,000

A list of all applicants can be found here (Note: there are four sheets/tabs of data to the spreadsheet).

The funding was made available through American Rescue Plan Act state fiscal recovery funds.

According to a release from Governor Mike Parson’s Office, it will help improve drinking water, wastewater and stormwater infrastructure, as well as lead service line inventories.

“We knew this program was critically needed for communities across our state, and that’s why we included it in this year’s budget,” Governor Parson said in the release. “While we know more is still needed to upgrade our infrastructure and ensure reliable water resources for the next generations, these grants will leverage even greater local and private investments to help boost our competitiveness for economic development projects and ensure our communities in every corner of Missouri are finding success.”

Dru Buntin, director of the DNR, said they received about 1,000 applications requesting more than $2.4 billion in funding.

“We designed the specific scoring criteria to ensure that the limited funds available are awarded to projects in a way that maximizes the impact of those funds across Missouri – in communities both urban and rural, large and small,” he said.

According to the DNR, applications were scored based on the applicant’s financial need, engineering capability and necessity of the project.

The department announced the availability of $410 million for water infrastructure grants in May. The application period closed July 14.

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