The town of Estes Park will receive approximately $10 million in grants and loans from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to improve and expand the Glacier Creek Water Treatment Plant.

The announcement was part of a $268 million award to projects in 28 states through the USDA’s Water and Waste Disposal Loan and Grant Program. The initiative serves towns and rural areas with fewer than 10,000 people and assists with drinking water treatment and distribution, sewage and solid waste disposal, and storm water.

“Upgrading the infrastructure that delivers safe drinking water and modern wastewater management facilities will improve public health and drive economic development in our small towns and cities,” said Bette Brand, the USDA’s Deputy Under Secretary for Rural Development.

In the case of Estes Park, $2.3 million will come from grants, and the rest is in the form of long-term, low-interest loans. The treatment plant will be brought into compliance with state drinking water disinfection requirements through the upgrades.

“In the coming years, there is a need to replace the 50-year-old Glacier Creek Water Treatment plant to meet newly mandated standards and to expand our water treatment capabilities,” then-town administrator Frank Lancaster wrote in March 2019.