ANDERSON, Mo. — A McDonald County community is putting a focus on water.
The City of Anderson recently received a large grant. The money will help officials identify problems with the city’s wastewater system.
“We gotta get our infrastructure underway and get it up to date to keep this town looking good,” said Brandon Bailes, Assistant Public Works Director.
Back in April, the City of Anderson received a $50,000 grant through the Missouri Department of Natural Resources “Clean Water Engineering Report Grant Program.”
“It will help with showing us where our infiltration from like floodwater and rainwater is coming into our sewer system. Which affects our sewer plant in a way that it overflows it to a point it’s at max capacity. This will help us finding out what the next step is in the process. What we need to do to fix certain issues and get it resolved when we need it,” Bailes said.
This summer Anderson Engineering INC. will be conducting the study.
“I would say our plant in general needs a lot of TLC. And our low areas where the creeks run through are gonna be in need of the most attention because of the last few floods we’ve had done a lot of damage,” he added.
The city says some of its infrastructure is more than 80-years old.
“With the regulations from DNR we want to make sure everything is smoothly. No blockage, no issues for citizens. And that we want to make sure the system is working properly,” said Rusty Wilson, Anderson Mayor. “It really feels great. It’s an improvement. It’s something we can look at to where we can use the money in other areas of helping our citizens out.”
The city anticipates the study will take about six months to complete. Once it’s finished the findings will be brought to City Council.