Senator Bill Cassidy says Louisiana will be receiving 101-million dollars this fiscal year in federal infrastructure funding for addressing the state’s clean water needs. He offers up some of the known problems, such as, “let’s go all the way to Shreveport and you’re going to have busted pipes in the winter storm, the place I used to get my hair cut, the pipes that take away the stormwater are the same as the pipes for the sewer system and in a big rain you’d end up with raw sewage.”
He says the federal dollars being allocated by the EPA will help local officials, lacking the tax base to do it, have the additional funds to make the needed repairs in order to provide clean water to the residents.
A portion of the funding is expected to be earmarked for the replacement of lead pipes, though Cassidy says that’s not something he’s heard concerns about. “What I heard was about sewer and storm, boil advisories and inadequate facilities that needed to be upgraded but tax bases were having a difficult time supporting that,” said Cassidy. He says if there are problems with lead pipes, he’s all for funding the problem.
According to Cassidy, the issues of clean water are a statewide problem. The senator explains how the 101-million dollars in funding will be allocated. “That money will go to a revolving fund, about 48% of that in the the nature of forgivable grants and 52% is low-interest loans, so the money is paid back so there is a revolving nature to it,” said Dr. Cassidy.
The infrastructure act provides additional funding each year through 2026, which means Louisiana can expect similar water infrastructure funding for the next four years.
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