The city of High Hill has recently received a $50,000 Clean Water Engineering Report grant from the Missouri Department of Natural Resources to evaluate its wastewater system.

The DNR awarded more than $160,000 in grants to High Hill, Brunswick and Otterville. Brunswick, located in Chariton County, received $62,000. Otterville, located east of Sedalia, was awarded $47,529. All three cities have a population of less than 1,000. High Hill has 186 residents.

DNR Director Dru Buntin said all of the cities will use their grants to identify wastewater system improvements needed to meet permit requirements, provide service to their areas and cut down stormwater infiltration into sewer collection pipes. The plans will be completed within two years.

“One of our priorities is helping Missouri communities maintain and improve their water and wastewater treatment systems,” Buntin said. “One way we do that is by offering a variety of financial assistance programs through which communities can improve key infrastructure and experience real economic benefits.”

High Hill Mayor Tom Stine said the city started its grant application process in April and was working on it over the summer.

“We did get the grant approved for the engineering study,” Stine said. “The engineering study had to be done by Oct. 12 and it had to be turned in. We did get all of our requirements done in time and got the report turned in. Now, we have to find funding to do the work that the engineering report says that we need to do.”

Stine said the city applied for the grant because it needed to update its collection system since it was getting ground water in its sewer system.

“That’s what the grant was for,” Stine said. “It is to study what needs to be done to our sewer collection system to bring it up to date. In 2026, there are going to be new regulations that will be put into force by DNR. We needed to upgrade so we could meet those regulations when they actually come. That’s what our goal is right now. We had two survey crews within the last couple of weeks. They have done mapping and surveys of our manholes in our collection system.”