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Harkin announces more than $22 million for rural water projects in IowaMoney was provided from a provision Harkin fought to include in the farm bill U.S. Senator Tom Harkin, D-IA, announced Aug. 15 that the U.S. Department of Agriculture has released $81 million in grants and $274.8 million in loans under a provision of the recently-enacted farm bill that he fought to include to boost rural water and waste water assistance across the country. Specifically, Iowa will receive $22 million in loans and grants for rural water projects. The program is designed to reduce the large backlog of water and sewer projects that were already pending at USDA. "Safe drinking water and the treatment of waste water are extremely important to promoting economic development and improving the quality of life in rural communities. I am pleased that I was able to secure direct funding for this important program in the farm bill," said Harkin. Randy Pleima, President of the Iowa Rural Water Association said, "The rural development backlog funding provided through the farm bill allows us to move forward on a sewer project for a small community. Without this funding, this project would have been further delayed and the existing system would have continued to have serious problems meeting the needs of the community. Without Senator Harkin's leadership and perseverance, Mahaska Rural Water and many other small communities and rural water systems around the state would not have had the necessary funds to improve and update their water or wastewater infrastructure." Randy Van Dyke, CEO of Iowa Lakes Regional Water said, "We are very excited about the allocations of funding from the farm bill for Iowa. This would not have happened without the 18-months of hard work that Senator Harkin put into the farm bill. He had a vision to help Iowa's communities in the back log fund their 0water and wastewater projects and he carried that vision out through both sides of Congress in his imperative chairman positions on committees." The specific projects include: --$4.2 million in loans and a grant of $3.4 million to fund the Osgood Water Treatment Plant and related facilities to help provide quality water service throughout the Great Lakes Region and to expand service to parts of Emmet and Palo Alto Counties --$3.3 million in loans and a grant of $1.2 million to construct a water distribution system in parts of Bremer and Black Hawk Counties --$3.35 million in loans and a grant of $1 million for a rural pipeline system in rural eastern Audubon County. --$3.664 million in loans to expand and upgrade a water treatment plant in Creston. The Southern Iowa Regional Water Association serves 10 counties in the area. --$1.4 in loans for the construction of a well needed for rural water customers in Sioux County. --$1 million in loans for the construction of a water distribution system for the cities of Greeley and Dundee and for a part of rural Delaware County. 9/8/08 Date: 9/2/08
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