U.S. Sens. Mark R. Warner & Tim Kaine Announce Nearly $62.4 Million for Clear Water Infrastructure Upgrades in Virginia
Nov 29 2023
WASHINGTON – Today, U.S. Sens. Mark R. Warner and Tim Kaine announced $62,362,000 in federal funding for the Virginia Clean Water Revolving Loan Fund (VCWRLF) to make clean water infrastructure upgrades across the Commonwealth. The funding was awarded by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Clean Water State Revolving Fund, a federal-state partnership that provides low-cost financing to communities for a wide range of water quality infrastructure projects, including municipal wastewater facilities, pollution control, wastewater treatment systems, stormwater runoff mitigation, green infrastructure, and water reuse. More than $47 million of this funding was made possible by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, which Sens. Warner and Kaine helped pass.
“Clean water is important for the health of all Virginians,” the senators said. “We’re glad this funding will help improve infrastructure throughout Virginia and ensure our communities have access to safe water.”
Virginia will use the funding to help communities across the Commonwealth fund necessary water projects that some communities may not have been able to afford otherwise.
Specifically, the funding may be used to:
- Improve wastewater collection and treatment facilities,
- Upgrade stormwater management systems,
- Clean up contaminated brownfields such as abandoned factories, gas stations, and dry cleaners,
- Build living shorelines, which are made from natural materials such as plants, sand, or rock and purify water, buffer floods, and reduce erosion, and
- Conserve lands.
Sens. Warner and Kaine have long supported efforts to improve water infrastructure. Earlier this month, the senators announced over $8.1 million in federal funding to improve wastewater treatment in Kilmarnock and Clarksville. the senators also announced over $4 million in federal funding, courtesy of the BIL for clean water improvement in September of this year.