Griggsville, Dallas City, Plymouth to receive $30,000 each from second round of Lead Service Line Inventory grant program

SPRINGFIELD — Illinois Environmental Protection Agency Director John J. Kim announced Tuesday a third funding opportunity of $10 million to assist communities in meeting the requirements outlined in the Lead Service Line Replacement and Notification Act.

The Lead Service Line Inventory grant program offers grants to local government units ranging from $20,000 to $50,000 to fund the creation of a final lead service line inventory. The Notice of Funding Opportunity has been posted to the Illinois EPA website.

The Illinois EPA also announcing the 120 communities receiving funding from the second round of LSLI Grants. Among those receiving $30,000 grants are Griggsville in Pike County and Dallas City and Plymouth in Hancock County. These are in addition to the $2 million in first-round grants to 48 communities, announced by Illinois EPA in January 2023.

The LSLRN Act requires owners and operators of community water supplies in Illinois to submit a final water service line material inventory for the Illinois EPA’s approval no later than April 15, 2024. The final inventory must report the composition of all service lines within the community water supplies’ distribution system.

“The Illinois EPA saw the overwhelming need for funding in the first round of lead service line inventory grants, making the second and third funding rounds priority for our agency,” Kim said in a press release. “These grants will allow communities to develop a complete material inventory of the water lines within their drinking water system, and more importantly, identify lead service lines that should be removed to prevent future contamination of the drinking water.”

The LSLI grant program utilizes a portion of Illinois EPA Public Water Supply Loan Program loan support funds generated from loan repayments. The Illinois EPA conducts a comprehensive review and scoring of all grant applications received to determine priority. All applicants must pre-qualify through the Grant Accountability and Transparency Act Grantee Portal.

For the second round, Illinois EPA is funding projects in 120 communities for a total of $4,335,816. Funding was provided up to a maximum of $50,000 per grantee. Of the 120 projects funded, 45 were identified as being in areas of environmental justice concern.