In This Issue

• Spotlight: “Building Back Better” with Improved American Infrastructure
• Success Story: Zeeland Clean Water Plant Leverages EDA Grant to Build Capacity
• Highlight: EDA Helps Fuel Pelican, Alaska’s Economy with Hydroelectric Power Plant

Spotlight: “Building Back Better” with Improved American Infrastructure

Each year, a significant amount of EDA funding is allocated to support locally-driven infrastructure projects under EDA’s Public Works (PDF) and Economic Adjustment Assistance (EAA) (PDF) programs.

Under the Biden Administration, improving our country’s infrastructure is critical in helping America build back better. The President’s American Jobs Plan outlines a variety of ways to specifically improve our infrastructure, pointing to many of the categories in which EDA specializes when it comes to helping distressed communities: building and improving roadways, railways, ports, and airports; ensuring clean drinking water and high-speed broadband; and revitalizing critical building infrastructure for businesses, healthcare institutions, schools.

EDA’s investments improve technology-based facilities that use distance learning networks, smart rooms, and smart buildings. We have also funded multi-tenant manufacturing buildings and other facilities to help make more products on American soil. Critically, EDA investments can also help address the climate crisis, including developing and implementing green products, processes (including green infrastructure), places, and buildings.

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Success Story: Zeeland Clean Water Plant Leverages EDA Grant to Build Capacity

Aerial view of the Zeeland Clean Water Plant in Zeeland, Michigan

Only about 5,500 people live in Zeeland, Michigan, but that number can triple during the workday as employees flock to several manufacturing businesses in the area.

The influx puts extra demand on the city’s wastewater treatment plant, originally built in 1915. However, thanks to a $2 million grant from EDA in 2014, combined with a matching local contribution, the Zeeland Clean Water Plant was expanded and can now easily handle the extra demand.

The $14 million project, completed in June 2018, has helped boost the local economy. According to grantee estimates, as of September 2020, the project has led to more than 275 jobs and has generated more than $88 million in private investment. Two Zeeland businesses – one focused on making auto parts and the other on plastic products – are responsible for a significant share of the job creation.

Zeeland City Manager Tim Klunder added that the extra capacity will create further economic growth in the city. In 2014, Zeeland had not yet reached full capacity, but they were on the precipice of needing to expand.

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Highlight: EDA Helps Fuel Pelican, Alaska’s Economy with Hydroelectric Power Plant

Pelican, Alaska is located on Chichagof Island in Alaska’s Panhandle

Fishing on Alaska’s Chichagof Island isn’t just for humans: more than 1,600 bears live on this sprawling and isolated landmass in the Alaskan Panhandle roughly the size of Delaware – one of the few places in the U.S. where bears outnumber people!

While the opportunities for sports angling and commercial fishing should make the http://pelican.net/ – Chichagof Island’s principal settlement – a destination spot for fishing and other pursuits, a power infrastructure issue has plagued the town over the past few years.

A 1940s-era hydroelectric plant supplies Pelican’s power source. The Pelican Hydroelectric Facility provides fresh drinking water to the community, water for its fish processors, and electricity for business and residential properties.

Recently, after 80 years of service, the hydroelectric plant was showing signs of wear. Following heavy rains, the facility’s aging penstock, which carries water from the hydroelectric reservoir to the turbines, became misaligned, causing frequent shutdowns.

“If we don’t run our hydro turbines, then we’re on diesel, and it’s costly,” explains Patricia Phillips, Pelican’s mayor. “We have to stockpile it in our bulk fuel tanks and it’s costly. If you have to run on 100 percent diesel, your costs to provide power to businesses are much higher.”

In 2016, Pelican city officials worked with EDA to engineer a solution to the problem and secured $242,676 in Economic Adjustment Assistance (EAA) (PDF) funds. The EAA grant helped rehabilitate the hydroelectric facility’s dilapidated penstock. As a result of the improvements, Pelican can now provide businesses with a steady and reliable source of power at consistent prices.

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