A $4.2 million FEMA grant will help the town of Wytheville make permanent repairs to its damaged wastewater treatment plant.
The facility was severely impacted by Hurricane Helene in September 2024.
A federal grant of $4.2 million is coming to Wytheville for the repair of its wastewater treatment plant, which was severely damaged when Hurricane Helene blew through Southwest Virginia in September 2024.
The money is coming from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Federal Emergency Management Agency and is awarded to the state, which sends it to the locality, according to a news release issued Thursday by U.S. Rep. Morgan Griffith, R-Salem.
A number of localities in Southwest Virginia were impacted by the massive storm, which dumped rain and brought high winds. One of the hardest hit areas was the town of Damascus and its surrounding counties, which received inches of rain that day on top of a week’s worth of earlier rain.
Many other counties were devastated by the winds, which brought down so many trees that emergency responders couldn’t go anywhere and resulted in more than a week of power outages in some areas, like Tazewell and Russell counties.
“Hurricane Helene severely impacted Southwest Virginia infrastructure, including the Wytheville Sewage Treatment Plant,” Griffith said in the news release. “Facility repairs are needed after damage to the facility’s concrete clarifiers, pumps, electrical relays and motor starters.”
The congressman added that the grant will help the town make permanent repairs and fully restore the operations of the treatment plant.
The grant money will help secure contracts to restore the plant, which treats 4 million gallons per day of municipal and industrial waste, the news release states.
