By GREGORY ZELLER //
Albany is making a $44 million investment in clean-water systems around the state – and the biggest single chunk of it is flowing into Nassau County.
The New York State Environmental Facilities Corp. has approved $44.2 million in grants, interest-free financing and low-cost financing for drinking-water and wastewater projects across the state, providing what Gov. Kathy Hochul’s office called “cost-effective solutions for critical infrastructure projects … that protect or improve water quality.”
The largest line item in the package is the $9.27 million in long-term, interest-free financing earmarked for treatment-plant improvements, sanitary sewer separation and “stream daylighting” – essentially, restoring buried watercourses to more natural conditions – in Essex County’s Town of Ticonderoga.
But the overall investment’s biggest single investment is the $4 million grant that will help upgrade a drinking-water distribution system operated in Nassau County by the Massapequa Water District. The funding – officially, $4,000,400 – is in the form of an intermunicipal grant, designed specifically to benefit multiple municipalities.
Basil Seggos: Challenge accepted.
Other sizeable investments covered by the new EFC package include a $3 million Water Infrastructure Improvement Act grant providing short-term, market-rate financing for storage and distribution system upgrades in Steuben County and $5.12 million in short-term, interest-free financing for wastewater treatment plant improvements in Oneida County.
All told, five separate drinking-water projects and seven distinct clean-water projects around the state were bolstered in the funding round, announced Thursday.
Hochul said the funding will “help local governments make critical upgrades to key infrastructure … helping to protect water quality for New Yorkers for generations to come,” while New York State Department of Environmental Conservation Commissioner Basil Seggos – who doubles as chairman of the Environmental Facilities Corp. Board of Directors – said the upgrades were critical “in the face of our changing climate and more frequent and severe storms.”
“New York’s aging drinking and wastewater systems are being challenged like never before,” Seggos said in a statement. “Today’s announcement of more than $44 million in grants and low-cost financing … will help local governments implement major infrastructure projects critical to protecting and improving water quality.”
