St Joseph’s very expensive sewer improvement and upgrade projects got a shot in the arm Thursday from the agency requiring those improvements.

The EPA has required the city reduce raw sewage discharges into the Missouri River, and now is chipping in a $485,000 grant to help pay for improvements.

The money will help the Whitehead Creek Stormwater Separation Project, one of the nine projects expected to cost about $150 million.

City Manager Bruce Woody says the $485,000 is a “significant number by itself,” and is a “step in the right direction.”

“Certainly we have some frustrations over the long-term expense for our long-term control plan, but in the short term, I’m certainly appreciative of this help from the EPA,” Woody said.

The Whitehead Creek project which will remove stormwater runoff from the existing sewer system, by routing storm runoff around the sewer system and directly into the Missouri River.

The project will include 5,300 feet of pipe, 11 junction boxes and seven manholes. This will reduce combined sewer overflows and pollution discharges to the Missouri River.

The Whitehead Creek project is expected to be completed by the summer of 2014. It could be twenty years or more before all nine projects in the long-term plan are completed.