An eight-mile sanitary sewer line extension for more than 500 residents in Kanawha County received $2 million in funding, allowing the project to move to the construction phase.

Kanawha County commissioners announced the funding from the U.S. Department of Agriculture Monday in a news release. The Kanawha County Public Service district has been seeking construction funding for the first phase of the Lens Creek Sewer Project for several years.

Serving 220 households, this is the most significant sewer line extension in Kanawha County in decades.

Lens Creek (Route 94 from Marmet, W.Va., to Boone County) is an area with outdated and failing septic systems that discharge into Lens Creek and the Kanawha River.

For more than 40 years, the residents of the region have worked to obtain sanitary sewer service.

“We have been working on this project for years, and today is a great day! It will be a boost to the community,” Commissioner Hoppy Shores said. “We anticipate as many 50 new construction jobs once the project breaks ground.”