New York State is sending more than $249 million to 181 water-quality projects across the state, with New Rochelle picking up $400,000 to fight road-salt pollution and Peekskill landing $2.5 million to fix a crumbling dam. Governor Kathy Hochul announced the funding, which spans everything from sewer extensions to streambank repairs, as part of a broader push that state officials say has now topped $10 billion in water infrastructure investment since she took office.
New Rochelle's Road-Salt Problem Gets a Fix
New Rochelle will receive a $400,000 state grant to buy specialized snowplow blades and other equipment aimed at cutting the amount of road salt that washes into local streams, according to Talk of the Sound. The city plans to roll the money into a citywide road-salt reduction program built around segmented plow blades and truck-mounted brine spray systems, the outlet reports. It's a small but telling piece of a much larger statewide list detailed by LongIsland.com, which covers 181 separate awards announced Friday.
Road salt is a recurring theme in this round of funding. New York is directing $17 million in Clean Water Infrastructure money specifically toward salt storage and reduction practices statewide, per the same LongIsland.com report, including brine-making equipment, specialized snowplow blades and other technology. Franklin County will use $600,000 of that pool to build an enclosed sand and salt storage building meant to cut runoff into the Lower Salmon River and Lower Trout River watersheds, the outlet notes.
A Dam Repair in Peekskill
Peekskill is set to receive $2.5 million to address structural deficiencies and inadequate spillway capacity at the Lower Wiccopee Dam, Talk of the Sound reports.
The bulk of the statewide money — more than $246 million spread across 139 projects — comes through the state's Water Quality Improvement Project program, which funds work ranging from wastewater upgrades and dam repairs to land acquisition and habitat restoration. A separate, smaller pot, the Non-Agricultural Nonpoint Source and Municipal Separate Storm Sewer System Planning Grant program, is providing more than $2.9 million for 42 planning and mapping projects, the same report states.
Environmental Justice and Algae-Fighting Dollars
More than $206 million of the overall funding is earmarked for water-quality improvements in environmental-justice communities, according to the LongIsland.com report. Separately, 63 grants totaling roughly $122 million will go toward projects tackling harmful algal blooms, either in watersheds that have experienced blooms in the past five years or in areas covered by a state action plan, the outlet reports.
Big-ticket sewer and treatment projects round out the list. The Cayuga County Water and Sewer Authority will get $10 million to build a nine-mile low-pressure sewer system connecting homes on failing septic systems near Cayuga Lake to the Village of Aurora's wastewater treatment plant. The Niagara Falls Water Board is also receiving $10 million, to upgrade its wastewater treatment plant to a biological process that meets new effluent permit limits and improves Niagara River water quality, per the same report. In the North Country, the Town of Elizabethtown will use its own $10 million grant to build a new wastewater treatment plant replacing failing individual septic systems in the Boquet River and Lake Champlain watershed.
Smaller Grants Still Add Up
Smaller Grants Still Add Up The Madison County Soil and Water Conservation District is getting $95,571 to stabilize roughly 1,000 linear feet of eroding streambank and plant vegetation meant to keep sediment and phosphorus out of the DeRuyter Reservoir, according to LongIsland.com. The state's municipal stormwater permit framework, overseen by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, sets stormwater-management requirements for operators of these so-called MS4 systems.
The 2022 Clean Water, Clean Air, Green Jobs Environmental Bond Act is among the funding sources for the Water Quality Improvement Project awards, the LongIsland.com report states. New York has now put more than $10 billion into water infrastructure and clean-water projects since Hochul took office, the outlet reports, part of a funding push that has run alongside a 2024 DEC effort — described in a DEC press release — to make road-salt reduction projects newly eligible for state grant funding.
