The Rural Infrastructure Authority had announced in May that it had made available about $29 million in grants for capital improvement projects in 16 SC counties, including four in the Pee Dee. These grants are to go toward improving water, wastewater and stormwater infrastructure, benefiting more than 50,000 households and businesses and bolstering services that support economic growth, the statement said.

Howard Garland, Latta’s interim town administrator, said the RIA grant will go toward sewer line replacements around the area. “We’ve had a problem for years with stormwater getting in.”

Latta, in Dillon County, has a population of 1,296, according to 2020 Decennial Census data. Garland said, in addition to the recent Rural Infrastructure Authority grant, the town has received $12,707,636 in funding from state and federal entities, including more than $8 million for water and sewer projects from another RIA initiative, the SC Infrastructure Investment Program. The program assists SC communities with improvements for clean drinking water, sanitary sewer and stormwater resilience, according to the SCRIA website.

Garland said Latta has received about $3 million to reinforce sewer lines from the US Agriculture Department and the State Revolving Fund Program via the SC Department of Environmental Services. Latta has also received funding from the Community Development Block Grant program through the US Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Garland said Latta’s “main street water lines are 99% complete. For sewer lines, we have to obtain permits from [the state Transportation and Environmental Services departments]. Looking at preliminary engineering reports, we’re looking at another six months before that starts. It has to be bid out. We’re looking at starting sewer construction in spring 2027, with completion projected for end of next year.”

The town also replaced its water tower with a new, modern one. “The old one was from the 1940s,” Garland said.

Latta has tapped Hanna Engineering LLC of Florence for the engineering work.

Garland said the recent Rural Infrastructure Authority grant “will put us around 80% on our sewer lines. The money will put us in better shape to have the water and sewer system be sustainable for the next 50 years, whereas in 2020, we weren’t sure.”

Garland said about that time, the now-defunct SC Department of Health and Environmental Control had placed “several consent orders” on the town. “In other words, DHEC was compelling the town of Latta to fix decaying water and sewer lines within a certain amount of time.”

Garland lauds Latta’s Town Council for finding ways to upgrade its sewers without breaking the bank. He expressed gratitude to the planning and technical assistance group Pee Dee Regional Council of Governments for writing and managing the town’s grant applications.

He said, “the water-sewer infrastructure was falling apart, and it’s been put back together over the last decade ... We feel quite fortunate to have gotten more than $12 million in grant money over the last half decade.”

The money is “helping keep a small town from losing its water and sewer system,” he said.

The other grantees in the Pee Dee included:

The town of Kingstree in Williamsburg County and Williamsburg County itself also received infrastructure grants.

Additionally, the Rural Infrastructure Authority selected the town of Olanta in Florence County to participate in its new viability improvement program aimed at helping smaller utilities strengthen long-term viability.