Part of a federal grant received by Fort Bend County will be used to help the cities of Richmond and Rosenberg improve their sanitary sewer systems for continued operation during an emergency.

Commissioners Court on Tuesday OK’d interlocal agreements in which the county allocates the funds, known as the Disaster Recovery Texas Community Development Block Grant, to the cities.

The county had applied for the federal grant from the state, the grant’s administrator.

Richmond will receive $917,569 to install two generators, one, which would cost $279,000, for a lift station and the other, estimated to cost $638,569, for a wastewater treatment plant.

Rosenberg will get $49,950 for the installation of five lift station manual transfer switches located on the north side of Avenue D, the west side of Mulcahy Street, north sides of Avenue A and Avenue B, as well as the east side of Sixth Street.

Precinct 1 County Commissioner Richard Morrison said the new generators and the lift station manual transfer switches are part of backup systems for both cities’ wastewater treatment to ensure operation is uninterrupted during a power outage.

“It’s required by the law after Hurricane Ike,” he said.

Under the agreements, the county will carry out Richmond’s lift station generator project alone while teaming with the cities for the other two projects’ construction.

The projects will be pursued immediately, according to the pacts.