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Construction Grants Overview
During the 1970s and 1980s, the Construction Grants program was a major source of Federal funds, providing more than $60 billion for the construction of public wastewater treatment projects. These projects, which constituted a significant contribution to the nation's water infrastructure, included sewage treatment plants, pumping stations, collection and intercept sewers, rehabilitation of sewage systems, and the control of combined sewer overflows. With the 1987 amendments to the Clean Water Act, Congress established 1990 as the last year that Construction Grants funding would be appropriated. The Construction Grants program is now in its closeout stage.
The Construction Grants component in the Grants Information and Control System (GICS) provides automated entry, updating and retrieval of Construction Grants Data. The system tracks administrative data, significant milestone dates in the construction of sewer treatment facilities, and closeout information. The data provided here is a subset of the Construction Grants data in GICS. Once a Construction Grants has been awarded, the grant may be amended to modify certain provisions of the grant. Most amendments are to make changes to financial data fields. A running total, referred to as a "cumulative" value, of each financial field is kept in the Construction Grant record. This cumulative value gives the current value of the Construction Grant's financial field, as changed by any awarded amendments.
Supplemental Information:
Major subject areas include:
- Identification Information - Applicant name, address, county, congressional
district, and grant number.
- Financial Information - Amount of funds awarded under the grant and shows
how the fund amount is broken out by need categories.
- Project Status Information - milestone dates that track the construction
process of the sewage treatment plant through closeout of the grant.
- Grant Number - Each application for a Construction Grant is assigned a unique
assistance identification number.
- Authority - The authority code is a code identifying the statute authorizing
the EPA assistance.For the Construction Grants included in Envirofacts, the authority
codes are: 3N Clean Water Act: Sec. 201(g)(1), and 3M Clean Water Act: Sec. 201(n)(2A).
- Wastewater Treatment Plant - A wastewater treatment plant is a series of
tanks, screens, filters,and other processes used to remove pollutants from water.
- Sewers - Sewers are a system of pipes that collect and deliver wastewater to treatment plants or
receiving streams.
- Eligible Costs - Eligible costs are those wastewater treatment works construction costs upon
which Federal participation is based.
- Needs Categories - The needs categories identify the amount of funds being expended for different
types of wastewater treatment.
- Primary Treatment - Primary Treatment is a stage in basic treatment of sewage that removes
material that floats or will settle. Screens remove floating objects; settling tanks remove heavy material.
- Secondary Treatment - Secondary Treatment is the second step in most treatment systems in which
bacteria consume the organic parts of the waste. It is accomplished by bringing together waste, bacteria,
and oxygen in trickling filters or in the activated sludge process.
- Infiltration - Infiltration is the penetration of water through the ground surface into
subsurface soil or the penetration of water from the soil into the pipe.
- Major Sewer System Rehabilitation - Major sewer system rehabilitation is considered to be an extensive repair of existing sewers beyond the scope of normal maintenance programs, where sewers are collapsing or structurally unsound.
- Collector Sewer Systems and Appurtenances - A system of conduits, generally underground pipes,
pump stations, and related equipment or auxiliary structures which receive and convey sanitary and
industrial
wastewater discharges (and storm water in the case of combined sewers systems).
- Septic Tanks - Septic tanks are used for domestic waste when a sewer line is not available to
carry them to a treatment plant. The waste are piped to underground tanks directly from the home or homes.
The bacteria in the waste decompose the organic waste and the sludge settles on the bottom of the tank.
The effluent flows out of the tank into the ground through drains. The bio-solids (sludge) are pumped out
of
the tanks annually by commercial firms.
- Interceptors - Interceptors are larger sewer lines that, in a combined system, control the flow
of the sewage to the treatment plant. In a storm, they allow some of the sewage to flow directly into
receiving streams. This protects the treatment plant from being overloaded in case of a sudden surge of
water into
the sewers. Interceptors are also used in separate sanitation systems to collect the flows from main and
trunk sewers and carry them to the points of treatment.
- Pump - A pump is a mechanical device for causing flow, raising or lifting water or other fluids,
or applying pressure to fluids.
- Combined Sewers - Combined sewers carry both sewage and stormwater runoff.