HYDE-SMITH ANNOUNCES $3.0 MILLION IN RESTORE ACT GRANTS FOR COASTAL WASTEWATER IMPROVEMENT PROJECTS
Treasury Dept. Funds for Septic Conversions in Jackson County, System Improvements in Hancock County
WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-Miss.) today announced the award of two RESTORE Act grants worth more than $3.0 million for wastewater improvement projects in Jackson and Hancock counties.
The U.S. Department of the Treasury awarded the Gulf Coast Restoration Fund grants to the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality (MDEQ) to continue work on the Jackson County Utility Authority Colonial Estates Area Septic System Abatement Project and for the Hancock County Utility Authority Cedar Point Wastewater Pump Station Improvement Project.
“I’ve heard from constituents and local leaders about the problems caused by old septic systems and the need for wastewater infrastructure improvements on the Gulf Coast. The use of RESTORE Act trust funds for work in Jackson and Hancock counties is not only welcome, but warranted for the health of the people and our coastal ecology,” said Hyde-Smith, who as a Senate Appropriations Committee member fought a previous attempt to block Gulf Coast states from receiving these funds.
The Jackson County Utility Authority (JCUA) project will receive $1,700,919 for phase II of the septic abatement process, which will allow the conversion and connection of 125 household septic to the JCUA public sewer system. The work is a continuation of an effort to decommission septic tanks in order to lessen the risk of downstream water contamination.
The Hancock County Utility Authority project will receive $1,368,081 to upgrade the existing Cedar Point pump station in Bay St. Louis to reduce the potential of wastewater overflows due to pump station reliability and capacity issues. This project would mitigate the threat of overflows contaminating adjacent coastal streams, the Jourdan River, the Bay of St. Louis, and the Gulf of America.
Hyde-Smith in 2023 fought a Biden administration effort to restrict the use of RESTORE Act funding, threatening to derail the FY2024 Financial Services and General Government Appropriations Bill unless the measure included her language to block the previous administration’s initiative.
Congress established the Gulf Coast Restoration Fund in 2012 with enactment of the RESTORE Act. The fund provides a portion of revenues derived from Deepwater Horizon disaster fines to Gulf Coast states—Mississippi, Louisiana, Alabama, Florida, and Texas—for ecological and economic recovery.
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