After years of rejected applications and failed attempts at funding, the Haines Borough’s wastewater treatment plant has made it onto Gov. Bill Walker’s proposed budget.

The proposed budget includes a little more than $1 million for the project, said Pat Pitney, director of the state’s Office of Management and Budget.

The project is funded through a roughly $4.1 million reappropriation from other statewide projects, Pitney said.

This is the third year the borough has applied for an Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation municipal matching grant for the wastewater treatment plant.

The state changed the application rules in 2015, allowing communities to seek a maximum of $1 million instead of $3 million, said public facilities assistant and interim clerk Krista Kielsmeier.

The idea was to spread the funding out more, so one community wouldn’t receive all of the funds appropriated for the grant program, Kielsmeier said.

Kielsmeier, who handled the grant application, said the project received more points this year than in years past because more engineering has been completed. The borough also applied for a DEC loan, garnering more points on the grant application.

She said phased projects receive more points, so the borough is hopeful the plant can be funded for multiple years.

The Alaska Legislature will ultimately determine whether funding is included in the state’s budget.

The first phase of the wastewater treatment plant replacement project will cost about $1.6 million, and the second phase is an estimated $2.3 million.

The project will include replacing control panels, lighting, pumps, building siding, polymer mixers, screens and other equipment. It also includes installation of two new blowers for a sludge aeration system (to reduce sewage smell).

Five Haines projects are included in the Department of Transportation’s Statewide Transportation Improvement Plan (STIP) for 2016-2019, including $19 million for improvements to the ferry terminal and $8.2 million for portions of the Haines Highway reconstruction.

The STIP also includes about $100 million for more work on the Haines Highway reconstruction project, though those three projects are “illustrative,” said state Office of Management and Budget director Pitney.

That basically means “they may not be built unless a number of currently planned projects drop off the list,” Pitney said.