Efforts to upgrade the Windber Area Authority’s wastewater treatment process got a boost of more than $14 million Wednesday.
The Pennsylvania Infrastructure Investment Authority, or PENNVEST, awarded the agency $6 million in grants and another $8.5 million in low-interest loans to improve its wastewater treatment process, said state Rep. Jim Rigby, R-Ferndale.
“Give credit to members of the authority for expressing a need in their community,” Rigby said. “I was more than happy to go to bat for them in presenting this to the PENNVEST board of directors for consideration, and happy to see the request was approved.”
Windber Area Authority provides water and sewage treatment services to approximately 6,000 customers in the Windber area, with its sewer lines transporting waste to its Ingleside Sewage Treatment Plant in Richland Township, its website shows.
The PENNVEST funds will be used to build a new “Autothermal Thermophilic Aerobic Digestion System” to capture waste, including two reactor basins and a biofilter basin with a scrubber, Rigby said.
It will also include an equipment building with pumps, blowers and related piping, in addition to the site work necessary to integrate the new facilities with the existing wastewater treatment plant, he said.
PENNVEST funds sewer, storm water and drinking water projects in the form of low-interest loans and supplemental grants to local municipalities.
David Hurst is a reporter for The Tribune-Democrat. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram @TDDavidHurst.
