Governor Kathy Hochul announced the Environmental Facilities Corporation Board of Directors approved $234.5 million in financial assistance for water infrastructure improvement projects across New York State.
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The Board's approval authorizes municipal access to over $226.8 million in low-cost short-term financing and previously announced grants to get shovels in the ground for critical water and sewer infrastructure projects, including flood mitigation measures that protect critical clean water systems from high water events.
The Board also took action to help ensure continued, long-term affordability of three existing projects, approving long-term financing totaling over $7.7 million to municipalities to provide savings on debt service for these projects.
Of the projects approved for funding today, the Board approved $148 million for a clean water resiliency project that will support the city of Long Beach’s long-term recovery from devastation caused by Hurricane Sandy in 2012.
This critical project will safeguard the city’s wastewater treatment systems with flood mitigation measures, convert the city’s water pollution control plant into a pump station and connect it with Nassau County’s South Shore Reclamation Facility.
Together with the ongoing Bay Park Conveyance Project, the city’s undertaking will improve water quality of the Western Bays and Reynolds Channel.
EFC is prefinancing the project to provide the city with the up-front capital needed to get the project constructed. These funds will be reimbursed by federal disaster grant programs.
The Board also approved a grant and interest-free financing package that includes $38 million in federal Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL) funding for the Village of Bath in Steuben County.
BIL funding for water and sewer infrastructure is administered by EFC through the State Revolving Funds. The project will modernize the village’s wastewater treatment plant to reduce pollution in the Chesapeake Bay Watershed and increase the plant’s capacity for future growth and development. ■