SAC CITY — The city of Sac City has received a $1,280,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Water and Environmental Programs.

The program is managed by USDA-Rural Development, which provides loans and grants to help expand economic opportunities and create jobs in rural areas.

The grant, along with a low-interest loan, will fund repairs to the city’s aging wastewater distribution infrastructure.

“Sac City has had severe sanitary sewer issues for several years now,” said Jamie Lawrence, city administrator of Sac City. “Many of the sewer lines are 50 to 60 years old and are in desperate need of repair.”

Lawrence said many rural communities are dealing with similar issues and it is in the best interest of the city to “deal with these problems now, head on, before further damage occurs.”

The proposed wastewater improvement project includes selective collection system rehabilitation, sewer main replacement along Audubon Street and 12th Street, telemetry system upgrades at Lift Station No.1, wastewater treatment plant computer hardware replacement, operating system and software upgrades, and supervisory control and data acquisition software updates.

A sanitary sewer and evaluation study that was completed by JEO Engineering in 2018 found that several sewer lines had been plugged by root growth, especially along Ninth Street. The study also found that wastewater was becoming bottlenecked along Audubon Street and 12th Street.

The grant from the USDA, along with the low-interest loan, will correct these problems and be used to prevent future problems with the city’s sewer system.