Hampton Roads Sanitation District receives $477 million loan to build pump station in Newport News
The Hampton Roads Sanitation District received a $477 million loan from the Environmental Protection Agency to build a new pumping station so it can close a nearly 80-year-old wastewater treatment plant in Newport News.
The payment is the second installment of a $1 billion low-interest loan for HRSD.
Ted Henifin, general manager of the sanitation district, said in an EPA news release that the Boat Harbor Treatment Plant has “served the region proudly for nearly eight decades but has reached the end of its useful life.”
HRSD’s project website says closing the treatment plant will improve the local water quality and Chesapeake Bay restoration efforts because the wastewater will be routed to Nansemond Treatment Plant in Suffolk where it will be “highly treated” before it’s discharged into the James River.
The project is part of HRSD’s Sustainable Water Infrastructure for Tomorrow program, or SWIFT, in which a portion of the wastewater undergoes additional treatment to meet drinking water quality standards and be used to replenish the Potomac Aquifer.
The sanitation district will need to build a force main — a 22,800-foot, 36-inch diameter pipe — along the bottom of the James River to connect the Newport News treatment plant to the one in Suffolk.
The effort is one of more than 20 projects across Hampton Roads and includes upgrades to existing treatment plants as well as the construction of new SWIFT facilities.
The SWIFT program is expected to improve the water quality of the Chesapeake Bay by reducing 90% of HRSD’s wastewater discharges, according to the news release.
The EPA will be making payments totaling $1 billion over the next 10 years. HRSD expects it will save approximately $210 million in interest costs because of the loan.
The SWIFT program implementation is expected to cost about $2 billion.
Construction and operation of the SWIFT program are expected to create about 4,480 jobs, according to the EPA’s news release.
Jessica Nolte, 757-912-1675, jnolte@dailypress.com