The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has provided a $610 million loan to the project that will bring Lake Michigan water to Joliet and five other municipalities.

The low-interest loan provides almost half the funding needed for the project, according to a news release from the Grand Prairie Water Commission.

“With this loan, the commission will construct a 62-mile regional water transmission network and upgrade other water infrastructure and systems,” according to the release. “This project will enable commission member communities to transition from their primary source, a depleted groundwater aquifer, to Lake Michigan’s reliable, high-quality source water.”

Commission member communities include Crest Hill, Shorewood, Romeoville, Minooka and Channahon.

The project will bring Lake Michigan water to 300,000 residents in those communities.

“We thank the USEPA for making this critical funding assistance available and helping to keep the program affordable for our member communities,” Shorewood Mayor CC DeBold, chair of the commission board, said in the release. “Fueled by this investment, we will stay on schedule and look forward to a 2030 completion.”

The loan provides 49% of the funding needed for the project, according to the release. It comes from the EPA’s WIFIA program, an acronym based on the Water Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act of 2014 that provides long-term, low-interest loans for infrastructure projects.