USDA bonds close loans on Sinclair water plant

Daniel McDonald
The Union-Recorder

May 14, 2008 12:22 am

— After signing a small mountain of paperwork, members of the Sinclair Water Authority gathered around the table for a picture to celebrate this “monumental day.”
With just a few weeks left until the Sinclair Water Authority begins providing parts of Putnam and Baldwin counties with potable water from its water filtration plant on Lake Sinclair, authority members signed off on the United States Department of Agriculture bonds that will repay the construction costs of the plant.
The USDA floated three 40-year bonds for about $14.4 million, which will be repaid by wholesaling water to Putnam and Baldwin counties, for the 10 year program that will result in the Sinclair Water Authority Treatment plant, which will provide the counties with about 6 million gallons of water per day. The authority also received a $1.9 million grant from the USDA Rural Development Program.
“This is the culmination of it all,” Baldwin County attorney David Waddell said. “The plant is in place, the finances are in place and the authority now owns the plant. It is the culmination of 10 years of hard work and cooperation.”
For Agriculture Department projects involving city and county governments, the USDA requires the municipal authorities to find interim financing to get the project close to completion before the USDA will release the bonds, Baldwin County Manager Joan Minton said.
The treatment plant on Lake Sinclair is currently operational and filtering water, Sinclair Water Authority Chairman Vince Ciampa said. The authority will begin putting water treatment chemicals aluminum sulfate and lime into the water and await Environment Protection Department inspection before the plant begins providing water on the projected date of July 1.
“This project is on-time, under-budget and in operation,” Waddell said. “All that and it happened in under three years. It’s incredible.”

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