BAY MINETTE – Baldwin County officials hope to use $22 million in federal COVID-19 relief money to resolve stormwater drainage problems around the county.

The county is seeking funds through the American Rescue Plan Act, or ARPA. The proposal includes projects in Gulf Shores, Eastern Shore, Magnolia Springs and Elberta.

“We put in a proposal to the state for their ARPA funding for $22 million for mostly stormwater projects,” Sherry Lea Bloodworth Botop, county spokeswoman, said.

Joey Nunnally, county engineer, said most projects around the state are for drinking water and sewerage. The top priorities in Baldwin County deal with stormwater drainage, however. The Alabama Department of Environmental Management oversees the grant in the state, he said.

“The projects that we’re doing are more based on stormwater. The guidance that I read through on Friday talks a lot about drinking water and wastewater and so it’s a little bit of twist there,” Nunnally told county commissioners Tuesday, Feb. 1. “The original ARPA language talked about water and wastewater. When ADEM gets hold of it, they’re talking about drinking water and wastewater. A lot of our projects are stormwater.”

Commissioner Billie Jo Underwood said drainage problems can affect drinking water.

“I think that what we’re really going to have to do is show that this is affecting these shallow wells and the drinking water and different things like that,” Underwood said. “Just the fact that it’s a washout or something, we’re going to have to prove that it’s affecting drinking water.”

Nunnally said flooding in some areas on the request list is affecting wastewater and drinking water.

On Surfside Drive, you’ve got failing septic tanks that refer to wastewater,” Nunnally said. “On Faircloth, same thing. When you’re underwater, the septic tanks don’t work. So, we’re going to make that argument with them on that as well.”

The project for which the county is seeking the most money is an effort to create wetlands and retention ponds at the site of closed dirt pits on the Magnolia River. Nunnally said the county received $4 million for the project through the Gulf of Mexico Energy Security Act, but more money is needed to complete the work.

Sediment from the pits has been washing into the Magnolia River, according to reports from previous meetings. Ponds and wetlands would be created on the site to control erosion in the area.

The project is scheduled to be completed by the end of 2024.

The county is seeking $2.5 million for drainage control near Red Gully on the Eastern Shore. Nunnally said stormwater control work was done in the area about 25 years ago, but some of the work done in the 1990s needs to be repaired.

A stormwater control project at Surfside Shores in the Gulf Shores area has an estimated cost of $1.5 million, Nunnally said. That project is scheduled to be completed by August 2022.

“Right now, we’re trying to get rid of a lot of the drainage problems down there. Y’all are fully aware of that,” Nunnally told commissioners. “We’re just going after construction money. We’ve already got design and permitting going on. We’re just going after construction money for this.”

The county is also seeking $1.5 million for a drainage project on Faircloth Road in Elberta. That project is scheduled for completion in October 2022.

Other projects include work near Turberville Lane in Spanish Fort and Baldwin County 28 near the Magnolia Landfill.