Over $1.7 Million federal funding celebrates 39^th annual Earth Day

 

April 25 - 2009 -COVINGTON, Tenn.— In celebration of Earth Day, USDA Rural Development Area Director Harriet Cannon and City of Covington Mayor David Gordon on Saturday announced federal funding of $1,758,700 to implement a more efficient process to dispose of the wastewater treatment plant by-products for the City of Covington. The funding announcement took place at the City of Covington Maintenance Shop.

 

On April 22, 1970, 20 million people across America celebrated the first Earth Day. It was a time when cities were buried under smog and polluted rivers caught fire. Today, the goal of Earth Day is to attract public attention to the growing needs for cleaner air and water and the need to conserve the earth's natural resources so that future generations inherit a healthy world.  Earth Day is celebrated annually on April 22^nd around the globe as a world-wide campaign to protect our global environment.

 

In observance of Earth Day, Covington residents held a week-long event starting April 18^th with Earth Fest and culminating with Saturday's "Clean-Up Fix-Up Day" with several hundred volunteers meeting in the morning and taking part in "Walk Across Covington" where they cleaned up and picked up trash for recycling and other disposal.

 

"As we have focused on various ways to improve the environment on our earth this past week and today, I am proud and grateful that USDA Rural Development, thanks to the support of our federal congressional delegation, has the financial resources to help the citizens of the Covington area, and throughout rural America, improve the quality of their life," said Cannon. "Adequate public infrastructure like safe, sanitary wastewater disposal is essential for good health and economic development and is part of the foundation of basic services that we should expect for people to have access to in every community."

 

A Rural Development loan of $1,489,000 and grant of $269,700 will be used to assist the City of Covington in developing a sludge dewatering system which will allow the city to produce a sludge cake that can be hauled.  The proposed process will allow the city to convert its disposal from a liquid form to a 22 per cent solids cake that can be hauled to a landfill. The proposed project limits the potential of a liquid spill due to the conversion. Local funding of $63,000 brings the total funding to $1,821,700 for this project.

 

Once the sludge dewatering system process is fully integrated, the city will no longer be confined to only one qualified vendor to dispose of the sludge from the wastewater treatment plant. Because the possibility of spillage is greatly reduced during the disposal process, more vendors within the area as well as the city can now dispose of this waste which will create competition and lower annual disposal costs.

 

"Our new sludge dewatering facility will greatly enhance and improve the Covington Waste Water Treatment Plant," said Mayor Gordon. "It will allow the city to more efficiently and effectively carry out a critical step in the processing of waste water. Internal control of the process will be increased. Decreased yearly costs are also a significant positive. We are grateful to USDA Rural Development for their continued partnership with the City of Covington and look forward to many more joint projects."

 

 

Rural Development community programs provide rural areas with financial resources to construct or improve essential services like reliable access to clean water, sewer, healthcare, education, job training and first responder facilities. Loan-guarantees encourage private lenders to expand the availability of affordable financing in rural communities. Direct loans and grants create sound financial opportunities for local governments to meet essential infrastructure needs. Rural Development funding for water and wastewater projects targets areas with a population of less than 10,000. Other community programs serve areas with a population of less than 20,000.

 

Others participating in the event included Rep. John Tanner’s representative Tom Turner, Covington Aldermen John Edwards and Ed Timberlake, City Recorder/Treasurer Jere Hadley, Wastewater Treatment Plant Manager Harvey Wilson and RD Specialist Bish Thomas.

 

USDA Rural Development invests financial and technical to improve the quality of life in rural communities through housing, community and business development programs. In Fiscal Year 2008 Rural Development assisted more than 678,000 Tennessee families and businesses with more than $435 million in financial assistance through loans, loan guarantees and grants.

 

For more information on Rural Development programs available in southwest area contact the Jackson Area at 731-668-2091, ext. 2, toll free at (800) 342-3149 ext. 1495, or online at www.rurdev.usda.gov/tn.

 

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