Within the next two years, Brown County Water Utility is planning to replace water mains and service lines, drill a new well, buy new meter-reading instruments and make other investments in its buildings and equipment.

But first, it has to find about $4.3 million to do it.

The member-owned utility — which is not run by Brown County government — started more than a year ago to plan for these system improvements. Now that more funding for infrastructure projects is becoming available from state and federal sources, the utility is putting in applications to see how much it can get in grants so that less has to be financed in loan form.

BCWU customers will not have to pay the project costs that are funded by grants. They will likely need to pay for project costs that are funded by loans. How much that will be, BCWU leaders are not sure yet, because they have not received information on how much grant funding they will get.

By October, the utility hopes to have that information, according to a project schedule in the preliminary engineering report. If all goes according to plan, construction could start in May 2022 and would be complete by May 2023.

BCWU, established in 1964, now has about 5,500 customers, mostly in Brown County. One of those customers is the Town of Nashville, which buys its water from BCWU to resell to Nashville Utilities customers.

BCWU’s supply comes mostly from water it produces, but water also is purchased from Jackson County Water Utility and Citizens Energy Group.

The most recent major projects BCWU has undertaken were in 2011, when it built a new water treatment facility and drilled two new wells, and in 2015, when it replaced a major water transmission main, put up new water storage tanks and did other work. Still, “the system has aged and some components need to be replaced due to deterioration,” the preliminary engineering report says.

The BCWU board approved that report on July 20 after a public hearing which no other customers attended. That does not mean that all the projects in the report will definitely be done; the board just approved the plan.

The projects include:

• drilling a new well to replace a 40-year-old one that no longer works;
• replacing 14,900 feet of water mains in five areas;
• replacing about 600 service lines to cut down on leaks;
• working on equipment in the Spurgeon’s booster station in Van Buren Township;
• working on components that monitor parts of the water system;
• building a new maintenance building that includes a fill station for water haulers to fill their trucks;
• repairing the foundation of the BCWU building, replacing the roof and flooring, remodeling the front office for better security, installing a backup generator and repairing the asphalt; and
• buying new meter-reading equipment.

These projects will not be expanding the water utility’s service area, but rather increasing the quality of that service, said Ellen Masteller, longtime office manager. Some lines will be upsized to allow more water to flow through them, and mains will be replaced — some of which are original to the water system — before they can break and cause major problems.

The board still could decide to take projects off the list later on in the process, said BCWU Board President Ben Phillips.

Easements will have to be acquired to do some of the work.

To build the new maintenance building and fill station, a house south of the BCWU office which BCWU owns may be demolished, according to project plans.

BCWU has requested funding from several sources to cover these projects.

The utility sent in an application last week to be considered for READI grant funding. Brown County is part of an 11-county region seeking up to $50 million in grant money through the READI program, but it is unclear how the projects each county sends in for consideration will be prioritized and considered for the region’s overall grant application.

The utility has an application pending with the Brown County Commissioners for a share of the county’s nearly $3 million in American Rescue Act money, which is coming over the next two years. Requests are to be evaluated later this month, around the time the county council and commissioner discuss budgets for next year.

BCWU has applied for financing with the State Revolving Loan Fund (SRF), which also is managing a subsidy program called the State Water Infrastructure Fund (SWIF).

The utility also had been planning to apply to the Indiana Office of Community and Rural Affairs (OCRA) for funding, but board members learned at their July board meeting that OCRA had decided not to fund any water or wastewater projects and instead divert that money elsewhere this year. Phillips signed a letter on behalf of the board asking OCRA to reconsider.

BCWU missed the cutoff by one place to receive a 2-percent interest rate from the Indiana Finance Authority, but it can keep reapplying to try to move up higher on that list.

BCWU has two outstanding loans from past projects: For a little over $7 million through IFA/SRF with a payoff date of 2036, and for $4.3 million through USDA Rural Development with a payoff date of 2050, according to the engineering report.