More than $265 million in grants have been awarded to support projects across New York state that will help protect update aging water infrastructure, secure access to clean drinking water and protect Empire State residents from future floods and other severe weather events.
Awards include $211 million in Water Quality Improvement Program Grants (WQIP) to 175 projects that involve protecting access to clean drinking water, addressing infrastructure issues and tackling contaminants that encourage algae growth and $55 million in Resilient Watersheds Grants (RWG) for 24 projects to alleviate flooding and protect New Yorkers during severe weather.
More than $208 million was awarded through DEC’s Water Quality Improvement Project (WQIP) grant program. WQIP grants fund projects that directly improve water quality or habitat, promote flood risk reduction, restoration, and enhanced flood and climate resiliency or protect a drinking water source.
Those awards include two $2.5 million awards to the Albany Water Board for a pair of dam renovation and restoration projects.
One involves modifying the spillway and crest height of Basic Creek Reservoir, a Class C High Hazard dam in Albany County, to increase spillway capacity to improve flood resiliency and protect downstream homes and businesses.
The second entails rehabilitating the Rensselaer Lake Dam, also referred to as the Six Mile Waterworks, a high-hazard dam. The project improvements will increase slope stability and help prevent failures that would impact downstream residences, commercial areas, and major transportation corridors.
WQIP awards also include:
- $10 million to Chemung County for a project to improve how it treats wastewater. The project involves decommissioning the Lake Street Wastewater Treatment Plant and converting it into a pump station to convey wastewater flows to the Milton Street Wastewater Treatment Plant. The project expects to improve water quality by reducing phosphorus and nitrogen entering the Chemung River and Cheseapeake Bay watershed.
- $2 million to Save the River, Inc to remove a dam in the Bronx River and restore the riparian environment. The project involves removal of the Hartsdale Dam in Westchester County and conducting post-removal riparian restoration on the Bronx River to connect 15 miles of upstream habitat. The project will restore critical estuary habitat and improve flood resiliency.
Resilient Watersheds Grants include:
- $9.98 million to the Village of Mamaroneck for projects that include removing the Mamaroneck River Bridge and stabilize the streambank, removal of the Sheldrake River Pedestrian Bridge and realignment of the Sheldrake River Channel and expansion of the floodplain.
- $7.38 million to the Town of Harrison for culvert replacements and channel widening in Brentwood Brook.
- Two projects in Yonkers that will receive two grants totaling more than $6.66 million for culvert replacement and streambank stabilization along Troublesome Brook near the Scarsdale Road and Manhattan Avenue crossings.
- $4.9 million to the Village of Herkimer for the Bellinger Brook culvert replacement, channel widening and stream restoration.
Photo by Engin Akyurt from Pexels
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