Tuesday, March 15, 2016
Staff report
YOUNGSTOWN
U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Cleveland, has announced the award of a $4 million grant and a $6.4 million loan from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to help Mahoning County build a station at Five Points to pump sewage that now goes to the New Middletown waste-treatment plant to the Boardman treatment plant.
The New Middletown plant will close because diverting a third of its flow elsewhere to reduce its discharge sufficiently to meet Honey Creek’s water quality requirements would be cost-prohibitive, explained William Coleman, office manager in the county sanitary engineer’s office.
The Boardman plant, which discharges into Mill Creek, still must be upgraded to accept the new sewage flow it will receive, so no date has yet been set for closing the New Middletown plant, he added.
The new pump station will be on Western Reserve Road in Boardman, west of the intersection of Western Reserve, North Lima and Springfield roads.
“The upside to receiving these funds is manageable impact to the rates customers pay for sanitary sewer services,” Coleman said.
“Investing in local water systems promotes the health of our communities and the creation and retention of jobs,” Brown said Monday.
The USDA Rural Development agency awarded the funds to the county.
Brown supported the Rural Development title in the 2014 Farm Bill to encourage economic development and increased infrastructure investment in rural communities.