The town of Silverton recently received over $2 million in congressionally approved federal funding to revamp its wastewater treatment plant, which has needed repair or replacement for more than a decade.
The United States Senate Appropriations Committee announced it would be allocating money for several rural communities in February. In April, it was announced Silverton would receive $2.366 million of that money through Sens. John Hickenlooper and Michael Bennet to replace or repair its wastewater treatment facility’s aging augmentation ponds, according to a news release from the town.
The project’s price tag has been an impediment to Silverton’s Public Works Department’s budget, the release said.
The federal funding changed that. The fact the town received federal money at all is a change-up, said John Zarkis, Silverton’s Public Works Department director.
He said Silverton has never before received this level of federal funding. The money will enable the small mountain town to finish a critical public infrastructure project.
“Silverton is a small community and we don’t have a big pot of money to put in all this fancy stuff,” Zarkis said. “I really do commend (Hickenlooper and Bennet) on not skipping Silverton on this round and making this happen for this small community.”
He said there are still hurdles to completing the project, namely in securing the proper permits from the Colorado Department of Health and Environment, which the town has been waiting to receive since 2025.
“We were supposed to have permit limits last year,” Zarkis said. “We are hoping that we see those new permit limits come out hopefully in the third quarter this year.”
But still, the funding itself has been a major step in the right direction, he said. This milestone will help Silverton as it continues to grow.
“It gets us into the future,” Zarkis said. “This is for planning for that next 50 years, because funding is so tight all over. So this is really a great opportunity that we have to get everything upgraded for the future of the town.”