Alabama lawmakers got an update Thursday on the plans to spend $2.1 billion the state received from the American Rescue Plan Act, a bill passed by Congress to help states recover from the economic and healthcare costs of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Joint ARPA Oversight Committee heard a report on the status of water and sewer projects across the state that will be funded, in part, with ARPA funds.

The Legislature approved plans in 2022 and 2023 for how Alabama will use its ARPA money. Lawmakers allocated the largest share, $615 million, to water and sewer projects.

Lance LeFleur, director of the Alabama Department of Environmental Management, said $573 million of the $615 million is obligated toward almost 500 agreements for drinking water, clean water (wastewater treatment), and storm water projects.

Congress required states to designate their ARPA funds for specific purposes by Dec. 31, 2024. The money must be spent by Dec. 31, 2026.

On the water and sewer projects, local governments have pledged $663 million in matching funds bringing the total of new investment in water and sewer infrastructure to more than $1 billion.

Although the money is pledged and most of the contracts are signed, LeFleur said, the work is far from done. LeFleur said the bid process has been finished for 260 of the 498 projects. About $74 million has been spent so far.

LeFleur said ADEM would monitor the projects to see if they advance at a pace to finish by the Dec. 31, 2026 deadline. LeFleur said it’s reasonable to expect that some projects will be unable to stay on track. He said ADEM is prepared to reallocate some of the money to other projects if necessary.

ADEM has a list of water projects posted here.

Sen. Chris Elliott, a Republican from Baldwin County, noted that there applicants who did not receive the grant money that could be good candidates if some of the projects are not meeting their timelines. Elliott praised ADEM’s work in setting up a plan to use the federal windfall in a way that will benefit the state for decades. Sen. Greg Albritton, R-Atmore, chairman of the Senate’s General Fund committee, said the ARPA program has been a success so far.

“I commend not just you Mr. LeFleur but all the state that has been involved in this that’s handled it the way that we have,” Albritton said. “And the result has been, we don’t any stain on any of this. We’ve handled it correctly.

“We are getting new infrastructure in the state that would not have been if we had not pushed this forward and done it in the correct way. We have construction going on in the state that’s creating jobs, that’s creating opportunities. That’s improving the life of Alabama. And frankly I think we, the state of Alabama, needs to be proud of what we’ve done.”

Alabama received its ARPA funds in two $1.06 billion installments.

Legislators, working in conjunction with the Gov. Kay Ivey administration, approved plans to spend the windfall in categories. Besides the water and sewer projects, they allocated the largest share to expansion of access to high-speed internet, or broadband. Lawmakers pledged $400 million in ARPA funds for prison construction. That is being used to help build a $1 billion, 4,000-bed prison in Elmore County.

The state Finance Department, which is overseeing use of the ARPA funds, has a website with information about the program. There’s also more information here.