The City of Gustine will soon be awarded more than $200,000 in grants for a wastewater project after the City Council voted 5-0 to authorize the city manager to accept it last Tuesday.

With an allotment of $211,000 from the San Joaquin River Exchange Contractors Water Authority (SJRECWA), Gustine will allocate the funding towards its wastewater treatment plant, which has had infrastructure problems over the past couple of years.

The site’s current electricity system has been "inadequate, deteriorated and unsafe” and not reliable to any equipment, per the agenda documents. While the city has four new brand aerators, it cannot be used due to the system's condition. To improve the treatment system, the city will need six new aeration equipment and update the electrical system.

The plan operates with 11 lagoons, with the first six supplying oxygen to microorganisms that break down organic pollutants in the wastewater and keeping the microorganisms in contact with the pollutants, per the agenda documents. The remaining non-aerated lagoons provide stabilization to organic matter.

Gustine applied for three grants and was awarded two. According to the agenda report, funding from SJRECWA will cover $175,000 in upgrades to the aeration and electrical systems, while another $36,000 from the Electrical Control Panel Modernization allocation will go toward replacing and renovating the site’s headworks control panel and installing new electrical components. The project will receive an additional $52,000 from the city’s sewer funds, totaling the total amount to $263,000. The project is estimated to cost $218,000.

To qualify for the subsidies, the city’s project had to focus on renewable energy and electric power infrastructure, water resource development, management and conservation, sewage treatment infrastructure and recreational facility development in conjunction with water.

In addition to preserving the infrastructure, the project will improve the city’s air quality, lower greenhouse gas emissions and benefit environmental health and have wildlife protection for birds that temporarily visit the treatment site’s lagoons, per an agenda document.

With the project not expected to begin this fiscal year, $218,000 will be allotted for the sewer fund for the 2026-27 fiscal year.