PFAS Contaminated Communities Getting Funding

HORSHAM TOWNSHIP, PA —The Military Installation Remediation and Infrastructure Authority has been awarded $19 million that it is dishing out to the water authorities where PFAS contamination impacted those communities.

MIRIA Chair Todd Stephens announced at MIRIA’s board meeting on Friday that MIRIA was awarded $21,159,415.00 million from the Military Installation Remediation Program, established by PA Act 101 of 2019.

In turn, and in keeping with MIRIA’s mission, the MIRIA board at that same meeting approved and awarded the following MIRIA grants:

• $3,525,000 to Ambler Borough
• $102,773.53 to the Horsham Water and Sewer Authority
• $551,446.68 to the Horsham Water and Sewer Authority
• $4,410,746.17 to the North Wales Water Authority
• $658,136.38 to the Upper Southampton Municipal Authority
• $3,024,917.09 to the Warminster Municipal Authority
• $6,744,260.20 to Horsham Township

MIRIA awarded the grants totaling $19,027,280.05, leaving $1,866,746.77 for MIRIA-designated projects.

Act 101 of 2019 requires MIRIA operating expenses to come off the top of MIRP funding.

For 2023, operating expenses were $265,388.18. That left a remainder of $1,866,746.77 of 2023 funding, which MIRIA has designated for economic development and infrastructure projects in Horsham Township.

The grants primarily were awarded to help local water authorities fund remedial systems in addressing PFAS contamination caused by former military base properties, to reimburse the costs of addressing PFAS to communities, and also to fund infrastructure projects in Horsham Township in advance of and support of the future redevelopment of the former NAS-JRB Willow Grove property.

The township sees the 862-acre base as a mixed-use development that would include a town center, office park, and regional recreation center, along with some housing.

The NAS-JRB Willow Grove property represents 8 percent of the 17-square-mile township.