MONTAGUE — The town and the Turners Falls Fire District both received grants from the Massachusetts Clean Water Trust board of trustees, in partnership with the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection, that will allow for water asset management planning and lead pipe replacement work.

Montague was awarded $75,000 and the Turners Falls Fire District received $124,900.

“The project that’s going to be done under this grant is we’re going to develop a tool that will help us manage wastewater assets, and, importantly, help the town proactively meet our requirements under our [National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System] permit,” Montague Town Administrator Walter Ramsey said of the $75,000 that was awarded to the town.

This grant, Ramsey elaborated, will go toward a project that began in May to manage the water assets in town. Montague applies for this grant annually, and this year it is going toward ensuring compliance with the requirements of Montague’s NPDES permit. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s website, the NPDES permit program ensures compliance with the Clean Water Act.

The project the grant will fund involves creating an inventory of the Montague Clean Water Facility and its collection system assets, which include the plant itself, sewer pipes and pump stations.

“We’re going to be compiling all that information into a Geographic Information System database, what we call GIS,” Ramsey added.

The money is also going toward studying local floodplains and evaluating the state of infrastructure for clean water and wastewater disposal.

The $124,900 grant awarded to the Turners Falls Fire District will be put toward lead pipe replacement work, which Ramsey said is a “worthy project.” According to the state website for the Lead Service Line Replacement Program, the grant will help the district understand where lead pipes exist, what pipes are active and what materials they are made of.

Ramsey is appreciative for the grant Montague received.

“[The grant] just shows continuing investment in the safe operation of our Clean Water Facility, and that’s a good thing,” he said. “We’re grateful to the state to be able to offer ongoing support, so that we can be compliant and operate a great plant.”

Erin-Leigh Hoffman can be reached at ehoffman@recorder.com or 413-930-4231.