St. Clair Shores Nets $473,000 Infrastructure Grant From State

ST. CLAIR SHORES, MI — Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer this week announced grants under the umbrella of the MI Clean Water plan, aimed at helping communities strengthen drinking water infrastructure.

Among the Michigan communities receiving money from the state through the program? St. Clair Shores — which is netting $473,750 in one of the grants.

"The City is very fortunate to receive this funding from the State of Michigan," St. Clair Shores City Manager Matthew Coppler told Patch Wednesday. "It will go a long way in making the City’s water infrastructure more secure and reliable for years to come and insure safe drinking water for our residents."

Coppler said the grant funding will be used in a two-pronged project, with more than $343,000 going toward certifying the city's water service lines. In this project, the city plans to have a vendor go out and verify the service line material of about 375 houses in an attempt to identify and replace lead water service lines.

"Verification will allow the city to more accurately develop the inventory of all service lines so appropriate resources can be budgeted to expediently remove the lead service lines in our community," Coppler said.

The second part of the grant will update the city's water asset management plan, Coppler said. The city's engineering firm will update all the field location gate valves, hydrants and connections, and use information from the service line project to update the city's GIS.

More than $5 million in funding was distributed statewide for local projects, state officials said.

“Since I first took office, I made it clear that we are going to rebuild Michigan’s crumbling infrastructure from roads to pipes to dams across our state,” Whitmer said in a statement. “As we put Michigan back to work, we’re excited to provide our local partners with the support that helps us protect Michigan’s water resources from source to tap. Making these investments into our most precious resource allows us to invest directly in public health, help jumpstart our economy, and protect the environment.”

The MI Clean Water plan is a $500 million investment announced by the Whitmer administration in October to rebuild the state’s water infrastructure.

Read More: Michigan's Water Infrastructure Is Getting A $500M Investment

The plan marks a significant investment after what some officials called decades of underinvestment in Michigan's infrastructure.