C.R. to receive FEMA funds for sewer fixes

CEDAR RAPIDS - The Federal Emergency Management Agency will provide $6.7 million to the city to repair sewers damaged in the flood of 2008, Sen. Tom Harkin announced Tuesday.

The funds will allow the city to fix six “historically significant” areas in its sewer system, his office said in a news release.

This latest money is a small piece of the FEMA funding that has come to the city to rebuild public buildings and infrastructure damaged or ruined in the flood.

On Monday, the city announced that FEMA had shifted gears and taken back $50 million in previously obligated funding that local officials had expected to pay for short-term repairs to the incinerator at the flood-damaged wastewater treatment plant and to pay to build a replacement incinerator.

The city said it will appeal that decision.