County looking to upgrade water and sewer systems through state grants

WADESBORO — The Anson County Board of Commissioners are looking to upgrade Anson’s wastewater treatment plant and water infrastructure in the coming years with the availability of new grant funding.

At their January meeting, the commissioners discussed how the county’s water infrastructure — much of which was built back in the 1970s with the exception of more recent spot repairs — is “aging,” “cracking,” and in need of updating. Funding for these repairs is available through the recently adopted state budget in which funds are allocated through the American Rescue Plan and provided to municipalities and counties on a competitive grant basis.

The commissioners voted to authorize county staff to issue a Request for Qualifications. According to Interim County Manager Ray Allen, a Request for Qualifications (RFQ) invites engineering firms to apply to conduct an independent evaluation of the county’s existing water and sewer infrastructure and pursue state funding for needed repairs and improvements to this infrastructure.

Allen said the RFQ will go on the county’s website sometime this week, and they will give the firms about three weeks to respond. It’s not clear how long it will take to complete this study, but Allen estimated that it could take between three to six months.

Once the engineering firm completes the evaluation, the county will be able to take that information to the state to give officials a clear picture of their funding needs. Anson will be competing with all the other counties for a piece of the $758 million in federal funding the state has to allocate over the next several years.

These funds, once allocated to their respective counties, must be spent by Dec. 30, 2026. There will be multiple grant application deadlines between now and then, and Allen said the commissioners wanted to start this process as quickly as possible so that they could “get in line.”

“I feel like we have a very good chance of receiving some funding,” Allen said, adding that it’s very rare for the state to have this much money to give away.

With a grant, Allen said that the life of the aging facilities could be prolonged, line breaks could be reduced, and water and sewer customers would see fewer rate increases.

The last time Anson’s water infrastructure was evaluated in a fairly comprehensive way was in 2010, according to Allen. There have since been some updates but none backed by major grant funding.

Anson County received $4.7 million in a direct allocation from the American Rescue Plan, and among the uses for that money is water and sewer infrastructure, which Allen said can sound like a lot of money but it dries up quickly when you’re using it on capital projects.