CLINTON, S.C. — The Clinton-Joanna Wastewater Treatment Plant is in line for close to $2 million in new equipment and controls, and state money will pay for nearly all of it.
The Laurens County Water and Sewer Commission voted Tuesday, Oct. 27, to accept $1.94 million from the South Carolina State Revolving Fund program for the work. The job carries an estimated price of $1,986,419, which leaves the commission with a local share of about $49,519.
The state help is set up as principal forgiveness. The money does not build interest, and the commission will not have to repay the principal so long as it keeps to the terms of the funding agreement.
Executive Director Jeff Field said the grant lets the utility put money back into the machinery its plant operators lean on each day while outside dollars carry most of the bill.
Crews plan to add four floating aerators to the plant’s equalization basin, the part of the system that smooths out swings in incoming flow. The basin’s pump station will get variable-speed controls, and a new control panel at the return activated sludge pump station will use flow-meter readings to run the pumps already there. Clarifiers No. 1 and No. 2, where solids settle out during treatment, are also getting new equipment.
The package includes design work for a future disinfection system, which will be built after pilot testing is finished. The commission expects the whole project to be done in the first quarter of 2028.
This plant job is one part of a wider wave of utility spending around the county. The commission reports landing more than $21.3 million in grants since fiscal 2025, a span that runs through the opening three months of fiscal 2027. Money is also committed for water and sewer projects in Joanna and Gray Court, repairs to the Bush River gravity sewer line and a 2-million-gallon clearwell to be built for the Lake Greenwood water treatment plant.
Filed under: Clinton SC Neighborhood News
