Storey County will receive $13 million in wastewater funding

Storey County will receive $13 million in loan and grant funds for sewer and septic work benefiting Virginia City and Gold Hill, a federal official announced Tuesday.

Lisa Mensah, under secretary with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, was in Nevada when she disclosed the funds would go to replace more than 13 miles of sewer pipe and repair the community septic system in the Virginia City and Gold Hill areas.

“USDA Rural Development is proud to partner with Storey County on such a critical development project,” said Mensah. The new wastewater collection system will not only include miles of in-ground sewer pipe, but also 300 manholes in the areas involved. In addition, a septic lift station will be built in Gold Hill.

Mensah made her announcement at the Storey County Development Offices while in the region touring the Tahoe-Reno Industrial Center (TRIC) and visiting three companies who are recipients of USDA loan guarantees. The firms are Sierra Fulcrum Biofuels, Aqua Metals and Tahoe-Foley Reno, which the USDA said in the aggregate are going to create 268 permanent and 430 temporary jobs in Storey County.

While in Nevada, Mensah also announced four rural Nevada projects have received more than $258,000 in USDA rural development business grants, two of them supporting Nevada tribal enterprises.

The four named were the Indian Dispute Resolution Service for tribal business training, the South Fork Band of the Te-Moak Tribe of Western Shoshones for a study on building a travel plaza in Spring Creek, the Health Communities Coalition of Lyon, Storey and Mineral counties to develop a statewide organic certification program, and the Fallon Community Theater to purchase a digital projector that will replace outdated equipment.