Nearly $2 million in federal clean water funding awarded this week to Oak Bluffs and Edgartown is expected to bring several long-awaited wastewater projects to fruition, including a sewer tie-in for the Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School and for the YMCA now nearing completion.

The U.S. Rural Development Administration awarded Edgartown a combination of loan and grant money totaling $806,100 to extend the town sewer system to over 100 homes in the Island Grove subdivision. It was more than the town expected, and town taxpayers, who already endorsed the plan contingent on the grant, will take a final vote in April on their share of the spending.

The $1.1 million awarded to Oak Bluffs will help to finance three wastewater projects for the town at a total cost of roughly $2.24 million.

The first project will connect the high school and the YMCA to the town sewer line, at a cost of just under $1 million. The project has been in the works for years, but was hindered by a town-imposed moratorium on all sewer hookups. The moratorium, which was lifted in August last year, stemmed from problems with the town’s leaching field in Ocean Park.

Now Joe Alosso, wastewater superintendent for both towns, said that the high school and YMCA tie-ins are expected to be completed by April of this year.

“We did a study in Ocean Park and we dug up some test pits and found out that the problem was not as bad as we initially thought it was,” said Mr. Alosso. “So we closed off two of the 28 [leaching] beds ... and once we did that we were able to lift the moratorium.”

This left the door open for the high school and the YMCA to move forward with their plan to hook up to the sewer system. The project began when the Martha’s Vineyard Commission called on the high school, the YMCA, Island Elderly Housing, Community Services and several other businesses in the area to address the problem of nitrogen loading in Sengekontacket Pond.

Superintendent of schools Dr. James H. Weiss said that he was delighted that the funding was better than expected. He said that the grant will allow the school to better its own facilities, reduce nitrogen loading, and collaborate with its neighbors to reach a regional solution to the problem.

“If the schools are going to be good neighbors, we need to deal with the nitrogen loading that we were doing,” said Dr. Weiss.

The second Oak Bluffs project will develop the Leonardo property with additional leaching fields. “Once we get that developed, we’ll have an additional 250,000 gallons per day of leaching capability, which will help the town well into the future as growth happens and the system expands,” said Mr. Alosso. This development has also been in the works for some time, but was stalled because the Leonardo property falls within water Zone II.

“Zone II means that you’re within a certain distance of an aquifer,” said Oak Bluffs wastewater commissioner Gail Barmakian. “The DEP [Department of Environmental Protection] requires you to have a higher quality effluent which means you have to process it,” she said.

This requires modifications to the wastewater treatment plant. For the third project funded under the federal grant, Mr. Alosso said that a component will be added to the plant to reduce the total organic carbon of the water, creating the higher quality effluent.

Development of the Leonardo property and improvements to the wastewater treatment plant will cost a total of roughly $1.45 million.

According to Mr. Alosso, the federal grant money will be divided evenly between the three projects. As other entities in the area tie into the town sewer line, their contributions will lower payments for the high school and the YMCA for their portion of the project. The remaining project costs will be covered by the town’s wastewater enterprise fund, which designates excess revenues generated by the wastewater department for use on wastewater improvements.

Mr. Alosso expects the other two Oak Bluffs projects — additional leaching fields at the Leonardo property and improvements at the waterwater treatment plant — to be completed before the summer of 2011.

The funding will cover a greater than anticipated percentage of project costs. “We had expected 40 [per cent], and are really pleased that we got 45 [per cent] in both Edgartown and Oak Bluffs,” Mr. Alosso said.

Edgartown’s portion will finance a project to extend the town sewer system to over 100 homes in the Island Grove subdivision.

This will bring the town into compliance with the Massachusetts Estuaries Project that recommended that Edgartown connect an additional 300 homes to the town sewer in order to reduce nitrogen loading into Edgartown Great Pond. A similar project was completed in the Edgartown Meadows subdivision in 2008.

The town approved the appropriation of funds for the project at a special town meeting in October. The decision was contingent upon receiving between 10 and 40 per cent of the total project cost from the federal grant. But the town was awarded 45 per cent of the total cost, or roughly $360,000, in grant money. Half of the project cost will be paid for by Island Grove residents, leaving a balance of only $40,000 to be covered by town taxpayers. “That’s just an incredible opportunity to the town,” said Mr. Alosso. “Edgartown is getting a really good deal.”

The project is still contingent upon voter approval of a Proposition 2 1/2 override, which will be decided in April. The town also stipulated that no money be expended for the project before July of this year. Mr. Alosso said that he hopes the project will be finished before the summer of 2011.

“[After] almost two years of trying to get the grant, we’re pretty happy,” said Mr. Alosso.