Counties scramble for stimulus funds for water projects - bizjournals:

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The money, announced by the last week, includes $30.8 millionm for wastewater projectsand $19.7 million for drinking water upgrades. Although not as large as the highway projects being funded by the stimulus the work still will create dozensx of constructionjobs statewide. The money is being channelee through the Clean for the wastewatefr projects and the Drinking Wateer StateRevolving Fund. The which is being administered by thestat , must be spent by February 2010 or it will be redistributedc to other states. Ordinarily, those two funds providd low-interest loans to the countiea for municipalwater projects.
But, because the fundsd are part of the federalstimulus package, there will be zero interest and the principal will be which means the money will be free. The Big Islanrd plans to go out to bid in the next four to eightg weeks for its two wastewaterprojects — the replacement of large-capacity cesspoolsx in Honokaa and Komohana Heights. The stimulus will fund $6.2 milliob for the Honokaa project, with the balance of $6 millioh coming from the state revolving Stimulus money will cover the entire cost ofthe $1.35 million Komohana Heights project, said Lono director of the Hawaii Countgy Department of Environmental Management.
The two projectas will generate approximately twodozej jobs, depending on how many peoplse the contractors hire, he said. There may be othert jobs generated by people choosing to hook up to the countt sewer system after the cesspoolsare removed. Fiftee to 20 contractors attended arecent pre-bic meeting for the projects, Tyson said. “There’s a lot of a lot of interest,” he said. “Theswe people also know because it’s stimulus-driven, thes projects are going to happen.” Kauai County officialss haven’t gotten that far for the expansio of the Waimea WastewaterTreatment Plan.
“We’re scrambling to get our RFP packaged put togetherfor advertisement,” said Ed Tschupp, chief of the county’s wastewater division. The stimulud will fund $7.5 million of the totao $12 million cost of the design-build project, and probablh will generate about 40 jobs overthe two-year constructiom period, he said. “It’s a significant project for the Tschupp said. “It’s probably the largest project that the wastewaterd management division has managesd ina while.” Other wastewater projects receiving stimulusz funds are the first phase of the Waimalu sewer rehabilitation on Oahu, whicgh will receive $7.
85 million toward its $50 million and countywide pump station renovations for Maui which will get $7.5 million towardf the $9.5 million cost. Drinking water projects, which will receive between $1.6 million and $4.9 include replacement of water mains in Pacififc Heights and Kapahulu on Oahu and in Waimes Canyonon Kauai; water line replacements in Lihued on Kauai and in Wailuku and Kihei on Maui; a wate tank replacement in West Olinda on and the development of a well in South Kohalas on the Big Island.