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News Release
RI Department of Environmental Management
235 Promenade St., Providence, RI 02908
(401) 222-2771 TDD/(401) 222-4462
For Release: August 6, 2001
Contact: Gail Mastrati 222-4700 ext. 2402
Stephanie Powell 222-4700 ext. 4418

DEM AWARDS $135,000 IN GRANTS FOR WASTEWATER MANAGEMENT PLANNING

PROVIDENCE - The Department of Environmental Management has awarded competitive onsite wastewater management planning grants to several communities to help establish eligibility for a community septic system loan program administered by the RI Clean Water Finance Agency.

The four awards, from the state's Nonpoint Source Bond Fund, include $75,000 to the East Greenwich Community Development Consortium for Exeter, Hopkinton and Richmond; $25,000 to Coventry; $25,000 to Little Compton; and $10,000 to Smithfield.

Twenty-seven Rhode Island communities, and about 35 percent of the homes in the state, rely primarily on onsite wastewater systems for treatment of sewage. DEM uses grants to encourage communities to establish onsite wastewater management programs to facilitate system repair and effective maintenance. Communities need such a program to be eligible for the Community Septic System Loan Program, which provides low-interest loans for the repair and replacement of failed and substandard septic systems and cesspools.

"DEM believes community grants and homeowner financial assistance may be more effective than regulation in some cases," said DEM Director Jan Reitsma. "This program allows communities and individuals maximum flexibility and overcomes the most significant barrier to replacing failed systems ¾ lack of money. It also establishes government as a facilitator of local initiatives."

This grant round is the last under the Nonpoint Source Bond Fund, which was approved by voters in 1990 to address nonpoint sources of pollution such as failed individual wastewater systems. DEM has previously awarded $402,820 to 14 communities for onsite wastewater management planning. Twenty-two communities have adopted or are in the process of establishing septic system loan programs. DEM used the Nonpoint Source Bond Fund to assist 20 of these communities. A total of $358,000 in bond funds has also been used for Hunt River aquifer and Hunt-Potowomut River studies in East Greenwich, North Kingstown and Warwick as well as the Stafford Pond watershed in Tiverton.

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