Bunceton, the small Cooper County town along Highway 87, just landed one of its biggest infrastructure wins in years: $2.86 million from the Missouri Department of Natural Resources to overhaul its wastewater treatment system.
The funding breaks into a $1.1 million low-interest loan and a $1.7 million grant, both through the state’s Clean Water State Revolving Fund, plus a separate $449,287 Community Development Block Grant. DNR estimates the low-interest terms alone will save the city roughly $1.7 million in principal and $540,000 in interest over the 20-year life of the loan — money that would otherwise have landed on local sewer bills.
DNR Director Jake Buxton framed it as part of what’s “critical to the quality of life of every Missourian” — the basic promise behind projects like this one: water and sewer systems that just work, day after day, for towns too small to easily carry the cost alone.
The project is expected to wrap up by November 2027. For a town Bunceton’s size, that’s a multi-year undertaking — but it’s also the kind of unglamorous good news that keeps a small town’s water bill from spiking and its treatment plant running for another generation.
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