WARREN TOWNSHIP — A Trumbull County community is receiving funding from the state to improve its water sanitation.

Warren Township received $1 million for its Meadowbrook Sanitary Sewer Improvements, as Gov. Mike DeWine and Ohio EPA Director Anne M. Vogel announced $16.7 million in H2Ohio funding for 13 water infrastructure projects to cities, companies and counties across the state Monday.

This project includes the construction of more than 10,000 feet of sewer to serve 71 structures in the township, as well as a wastewater treatment plant, which will service approximately 750 properties.

This is the sixth round of H2Ohio funding awarded to municipalities by the Ohio EPA to improve water infrastructure and increase access to safe drinking water.

The first three rounds of the program, awarded in October 2021, November 2021 and December 2021, were funded with $250 million from the American Rescue Plan Act appropriated by the 134th Ohio General Assembly, according to a November 2023 news release.

Both the fourth and fifth rounds of the award were funded through an additional $250 million in ARPA dollars appropriated by the legislature through House Bill 45, signed in January 2023, but the news release did not clarify where this sixth round of funding came from.

“H2Ohio is making a real difference with the significant investments we are putting into reliable, clean drinking water,” DeWine said in the news release. “The projects being awarded today will have a huge positive impact (on) hundreds of Ohioans, and that’s what H2Ohio is all about.”

H2Ohio, a water quality initiative launched in 2019, uses a comprehensive approach guided by science and data to reduce algal blooms, stop pollution, and improve access to clean drinking water by supporting best farming practices, road salt runoff reduction, litter cleanup, dam removal, land conservation, and water infrastructure revitalization.