ROTHSCHILD, WI (WSAU-WAOW) – The Village of Rothschild will be receiving a grant from the state to help pay for upgrades to their drinking water plant.
Village Administrator Ryan VanDeWalle has announced that they will get over $3 million from Wisconsin’s $402 million allocated to drinking water projects from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.
VanDeWalle says that money will all go towards paying for an $8.5 million addition to their drinking water treatment plant. “It’s all gonna be water treatment plant-related, we’re looking to increase and build out from our existing water plant on West Grand Avenue.”
That’s not the only funding that the Village is hoping to get for the project. They’re also applying for federal dollars with the goal of covering as much of the cost as possible.
He said that since Rothschild’s population is increasing, they are going to need a bigger water treatment facility to keep the water clean for more people.
Wausau is another community that is getting help from the funding plan, with around $17 million going towards adding a long-term PFAS removal system to its existing water treatment plant. Officials from the DNR talked about what that long-term solution will look like.
Matthew Marcum, the environmental loans section manager with the Wisconsin DNR, said, “The route that they chose to go forward with is a granular-activated charcoal system. That will reduce PFAS to what everyone hopes is acceptable levels in the drinking water.”
But the money isn’t just being given to the communities, Marcum said that some of it will have to be paid back, but that it’s not as bad as it might sound.
Marcum said, “$5.1 million of that is going to be principal forgiveness, which is similar to a loan. It’s funding that doesn’t have to be repaid, the remaining $12.3 million is going to be in the form of a subsidized low-interest loan that will be repaid over 20 or 30 years.”
Editors Note: An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated that the Village has received $8 million from the state.
