The newest initiative Eau Clair County officials are funding with federal pandemic relief funds includes adding solar panels to the top of two county buildings and increasing testing of drinking water.
Eau Claire County Spends Stimulus Money To Fund Solar Projects And Water testing (Environmental Heal)
Funding Solar Projects, Water Testing With Pandemic-Relief Money
County Board meeting last week supervisors voted 19-1 — nine were absent that evening — to pay for those initiatives with $527,933 from the county’s allocation of American Recovery Plan Act money.
The county’s Administration Committee considered several options for how to use the few remaining unallocated funds $20.3 million in federal money the county received in 2021 before recommending the projects. The chosen projects, according to county supervisor and committee member nancy Coffey “had bubbled to the top”
Solar panels worth $275,000, will be placed on the roof of the Eau Claire County Agriculture & Resource Center in Altoona and the Human Services Department wing of the Courthouse in Eau Claire
The solar panels will offset the two buildings’ power bills by generating clean energy, which will also help the county government toward aiming of being carbon-neutral and running on renewable energy by 2050. With roof works happening now at the Courthouse and planned next year at the Altoona building, Coffey said it’s timely and cost-effective to also add solar panels.
ARPA Funds Allocated
In the County Board meeting on Tuesday, it was stated that $252,933 remaining ARPA funds were distributed. This money will be utilized to buy new water testing equipment and offer 200 rural. A high-tech lab instrument that will examine water samples for certain metals will be purchased for $155,000 and installed. The Eau Claire City-County Health Department requested the equipment, which would make for faster and more cost-effective testing according to Yah00!finance.
The remaining $97,933 from last week’s ARPA budget is for testing 200 private wells in the county for a wide variety of water pollution. Those test results will then be analyzed by UW-Eau Claire researchers in a study to find any potential issues with drinking water in rural areas. The tests would be free to county residents, and Coffey noted the results could help them put in for state grants to help mitigate problems found in private wells.
