FLORENCE — The documents for an $18.9 million water pollution control revolving loan using stimulus funds were executed by Florence Mayor Stephen J. Wukela on Thursday, marking the first step toward financing and beginning construction of a new Florence Regional Wastewater Management Facility.
“This is a very important step today and a very important project,” Wukela said. “We’ve talked for some years now about the importance of a new wastewater treatment plant.
“We are very near maximum capacity on the current operating plant and we’re in danger, ultimately, of losing the ability to have permits issued by (the state Department of Health and Environmental Control) to have new sewer taps if we don’t do something dramatic and soon,” he said. “(The city) has been working on this project for a long time with that need in mind and we are, I think, completely finish planning a $120 million wastewater treatment facility.”
The loan, which would be used to begin construction of the first component of the facility’s first phase, will be with the South Carolina Water Quality Revolving Fund Authority.
A source of low interest financing for the city is approved through the Water Pollution Control Revolving Loan Fund program.
Charlton deSaussure Jr., a public finance attorney with Haynsworth Sinkler Boyd in Charleston, said the loan includes $4 million at an interest of 0 percent and the balance of the loan at 3.5 percent for a total blended interest rate of 2.81 percent.
The $4 million at 0 percent interest was provided through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 stimulus funds.
The new wastewater treatment facility will provide adequate capacity — ranging from 18 million gallons per day (mgd) to an ultimate capacity of 36 mgd — for treatment of current wastewater needs and future growth in the Pee Dee, officials said.
The new facility be located near the existing facility on Stockade Drive, Wukela said.
The Phase I improvements total an estimated $100 million in capital costs and were scheduled for design and construction during fiscal years 2008 through 2013, according to a press release issued by the City of Florence.
Funding for the complete construction of the new facility will require several sources of funding, including the state revolving fund loan, a bond issue, grant funding and accrued water and sewer system cash reserves, according to the release.
On the Web
Florence Wastewater Treatment Division, www.cityofflorence.com/public_works/wastewater
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