On Feb. 22, Governor Brian Kemp announced over $422 million in preliminary awards to reinforce water and sewer infrastructure across the state, including an award of $3 million to the City of Dawsonville. 

According to a press release by Kemp’s office, the goal of the awards is to make sure that communities in high-need areas have reliable and safe drinking water and wastewater systems. 

“Because we remained focused on protecting lives and livelihoods throughout the pandemic, Georgia is now in a position to make strategic, transformational investments in our state’s water and sewer infrastructure,” Kemp said in the release. “I want to thank the committee members for dedicating their time and expertise to help us make these awards as well as the grants team at the Office of Planning and Budget. I am proud to know that we have worked hard to prioritize projects which address pressing public health and environmental issues, support economic development, and enhance our ability to be good stewards of our water resources for generations to come.”

The water and sewer infrastructure awards will help to improve drinking water treatment, extend drinking water service to high-need areas, improve drinking water infrastructure, improve wastewater treatment to result in cleaner lakes and rivers, improve biosolids management to result in less waste in landfills, improve sewer systems to result in fewer hazardous spills and secure Georgia’s water resources for the future, the release said. 

Local entities including the City of Dawsonville applied for the grants and were evaluated by a group of committee members before being selected to receive the money. According to accompanying documents with the release, the City of Dawsonville plans to use its $3 million grant to construct a new wastewater treatment plant. 

“Additional capacity is needed to meet projected demands, which have accelerated due to migration from metropolitan areas during the period of the pandemic,” the accompanying document said. “Improvements are located in the southwest area of the city, within zip code 30534. The project will benefit all 3,720 city residents, as well as people downstream.” 

For more information about the water and sewer infrastructure grants including a full list of grant recipients, go to https://gov.georgia.gov/press-releases/2022-02-22/gov-kemp-announces-more-422m-awards-reinforce-water-and-sewer.