U.S. Sen. Pete Domenici announced Friday that the city of Tucumcari has been awarded a $2.17 million federal loan and grant package to support upgrades to its aging wastewater system, according to a press release.

“I’m thrilled,” said city manager John Sutherland Friday when he heard of the award. Construction should begin this year, Sutherland said.
This award package plus an earlier award totaling $3.1 million for a sewer headworks project will make it possible to update the treatment plant and sewer collection east of First Street, Sutherland said.

This section of the city services motels, truck plazas and other developments along Interstate 40 that are important to the city’s economy, Sutherland said.

“We have had very good help from the senator’s office,” Sutherland said. “And HDR Engineering’s staff, including Jennifer Mastink, has also helped us with the funding sources.”

  “A workable wastewater system is a primary quality of life requirement in any community, and this USDA funding will help Tucumcari ensure that its system is better suited to serve its residents,” Domenici said in the release.  “I am pleased the USDA is investing these funds in Tucumcari.”

The U.S. Department of Agriculture Rural Development $2.17 grant funding package was awarded in two separate water and wastewater disposal loan and grant awards.

• The first award involves a $533,000 loan  and a $476,760 grant to replace the 25-year-old Date Street lift station, including expanding the site property for the station. The funding will be used to address problems with a corroded asbestos cement pipe.

• The second award amounts to a $564,486 loan and a $553,417 grant to rehabilitate the city’s treatment facility and replace existing equipment and biological treatment process equipment. This project would allow the system to handle industrial and residential flows and meet National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System requirements.  The rehabilitation project will also aid the city in meeting water reuse regulations. 

Both USDA loans are for 40 years at 4.5 percent interest.  The loans and grants will build on previous funding awarded by USDA to modernize the Tucumcari wastewater system.

In 2005, USDA Rural Development awarded Tucumcari a $900,000 grant and a $1,283,000 40-year, 4.25 percent-interest loan to repair four lift stations, add a new biological treatment process, and rehabilitate existing equipment and treatment processes.