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State Senate Adds Funding for Local Wastewater Projects to Replace Federal Cut

By Bill Dubensky Apr 20, 2025 | 9:03 AM

(Photo provided by Wells County Emergency Management via the North Dakota Monitor)

 

 

(By:  North Dakota Monitor) – The North Dakota Senate added funding to a budget bill to help communities that lost federal grants for infrastructure projects.

Sen. Jeff Magrum, R-Hazelton, who introduced an amendment to House Bill 1577 on the Senate floor, said he’s noticed some “hiccups” involving federal fund distribution.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency canceled about $20 million in grants designated for North Dakota projects. The pulled federal grants announced were from FEMA’s Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities program, designed to help state and local governments with projects that reduce risks to hazards.

“They had gotten these grants and they were ready to build their projects and the money was pulled out from under them,” Magrum said.

The amended bill authorizes the state-owned Bank of North Dakota to issue up to $9.7 million in loans through the Department of Environmental Quality for wastewater projects affected by the funding cuts. Two wastewater projects that lost funding are a $7.8 million wastewater treatment project in Lincoln and a $1.9 million wastewater lagoon erosion project in Fessenden.

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