Since 1998, MSWD has received over $14 million in grant funding from various federal and state entities. Those funds help finance and offset the construction costs associated with implementing necessary capital improvement projects and are often able to be stretched over large projects thanks to a local match through property assessments paid by local property owners.

Typically, grant funds are made available to MSWD in increments rather than all at once. Projects are likewise divided into phases to take advantage of the funding as it becomes available.

Most grants have specific guidelines as to what kind of work the funds are to be used for. For example, for AD12, MSWD received a grant from the State of California for $2 million, to be applied to sewerline construction. The Federal EPA has awarded the District a grant for a similar amount that can subsidize septic system abatement. Property owners themselves voted to pay their share of costs, which will make the project an $8 million project.

Below are some projects that are of interest and importance to MSWD customers.

Groundwater Quality Protection Project
The U.S. EPA's "1999 Groundwater Report to Congress" states that the cost of protecting water quality from degradation is one-tenth (1/10) to one-one hundredth (1/100) the cost of cleanup. It is with this in mind that MSWD has undertaken its extensive, long term Groundwater Quality Protection Project. Wastewater treatment and sewering, including Assessment Districts 11 and 12, and projects like the Dos Palmas Waterline Replacement Project, are all pieces that together form the greater picture of providing, protecting and preserving our most valuable resource – water – under the Groundwater Quality Protection Project.

Below is a chart that indicates current Project sewering and septic abatement goals and timeline:

Assessment District 12 (AD12)
AD12, like AD11 before it, furthers the District's ongoing goal to construct a sewer system throughout its service area, thereby protecting our precious groundwater from the threat of contamination by individual septic systems - a threat that State water quality agencies consider to be among the greatest threats to groundwater quality.

As noted in the introduction above, MSWD received a grant from the State of California for $2 million, to be applied to sewerline construction. The Federal EPA has awarded the District a grant for a similar amount that can subsidize septic system abatement. Property owners themselves voted to pay their share of costs, which will make the project an $8 million project.

With the funding established, the District has moved forward with engineering, design and construction. Construction will begin first in Area L. For more detailed information on Area L construction, including a map and construction timeline charts, please refer to the Construction News page.

The District held a public forum to create a 10-point evaluation process to determine which project areas in AD12 to complete first. These evaluation points include considerations such as housing density, economic benefit, and susceptability to groundwater threat due to failing septic systems and outdated and/or leaking pipelines.

View a map of the AD12 project area and estimated costs.

Dos Palmas Waterline Replacement Project
MSWD has been named as the recipient of a $4.4 million grant from the California Dept. of Water Resources (DWR) for the Dos Palmas Waterline Replacement Project. The project will remove old and outdated asbestos cement pipes serving over 400 parcels in the Dos Palmas neighborhood, replacing them with cleaner and more modern ductile iron pipe.

This project's Construction Phase I has been completed, and Phase II is scheduled to go out to bid in June 2007.  When construction begins, information on streets affected may be found on the Construction News page.

Updated 11.05.07