AUGUSTA — Gov. Janet Mills announced Friday that her administration is awarding $25.2 million in storm recovery grants to 39 communities across Maine to help them recover and build more resilient infrastructure following last winter’s devastating storms.

Included in that is $4 million to the Rumford-Mexico Sewerage District to renovate the existing wastewater pumping station and install a series of flood proofing measures.

“This grant will help the district improve storm and flood resilience at the Dix Avenue pump station (in Mexico),” Sewer District Superintendent Roland Arsenault said. “As the facility stands now, future floods could catastrophically damage the station and disrupt the essential operation of wastewater collection system infrastructure that residents and businesses in Mexico, Rumford and Dixfield rely on.

“The long-overdue upgrade supported by this grant will benefit the three communities served by the upstream wastewater collection system and ensure that the district is able to help protect the Androscoggin River’s water quality and environment well into the future,” he added.

Arsenault said they’re also excited about this grant because it means less money they’ll have to borrow.

“This was a shocker, to be honest with you. We applied for it in June of this year. The reason we originally found out about it is we had to do a $20,000 climate adaptation plan,” he said. “Dix Avenue fell into that because it’s right in the flood zone. When DOT (Department of Transportation) announced it, we wondered if we qualified for this because a lot of climate adaptation work that we’re doing on Dix Avenue is because of that, so we applied, and said this is what we’re looking for, $4 million, and they awarded us the fully amount.”

The grants come from the Maine Infrastructure Adaptation Fund, created by the governor and the Legislature in 2021, and are funded by $60 million in state funding that Mills and the Legislature approved through the supplemental budget in May — the single largest investment in storm recovery by any administration in Maine history.

The awards will fund municipalities’ work to upgrade vital culverts, move or stabilize roads at risk of flooding, strengthen storm drainage infrastructure, and make other improvements to help their communities mitigate the impact of intense storms, flooding and rising sea levels.

“We are working closely with towns and cities to take decisive action that will protect our people, our communities, and our economy from the destructive impacts of climate change,” said Mills. “These important awards will help communities across Maine recover from last winter’s storms and upgrade their infrastructure so that they are better prepared for the future.”

“Severe weather events can wreak havoc on the infrastructure that connects us; this funding will help us rebuild those connections and increase their resiliency for the future,” said Bruce Van Note, commissioner of the Maine Department of Transportation. “The team at the Maine Department of Transportation is excited to work with our colleagues at the state and local levels to provide this support to the communities that have been impacted by these storm events. Investments in infrastructure support the economic opportunities and quality of life that make our state great.”

“Maine’s climate action plan, Maine Won’t Wait, calls for investing in communities to protect vital infrastructure from effects of climate change, such as flooding, rising sea levels, and extreme storms,” said Hannah Pingree, director of the Governor’s Office of Policy Innovation and the Future and co-chair of the Maine Climate Council. “Last winter’s storm impacts highlight the urgency of taking action to protect vulnerable infrastructure and these grant awards highlight the state’s commitment to supporting actions to address climate impacts, in partnership with Maine communities.”