New Hudson River Watershed restoration investments top $16 million

Many of the state’s most important grants to restore water quality and aquatic habitat were included in Governor Cuomo announcement of statewide funding for Regional Economic Development Councils December 8, including more than $16 million for projects in the Hudson River Watershed.

The two largest sources of funding for these projects are federal Community Development Block Grants and state Environmental Protection Fund grants for point and non-point source pollution reduction projects.

Riverkeeper is among a broad coalition of groups advocating for sustained funding of $300 million for the Environmental Protection Fund (EPF) in the next fiscal year. Within the EPF, we are advocating for sustained funding for Water Quality Improvement Program grants at $25 million, and the Municipal Non-Point Source Pollution Control Program and $8 million, and for both programs to allocate all funds based on a competitive grant process such as the one announced this week.

We are also seeking $7 million in the EPF to return the Hudson River Estuary Program to pre-recession funding levels, and to provide a modest boost in capacity to the Mohawk River Basin Program. And we are seeking $800 million in grants available through the influential Water Infrastructure Improvement Act, a new fund separate from the EPF that pays for important water quality improvements. These important programs provide grants that were announced previously.

Some highlights of the most recent round of funding include:

Saw Mill River: $2.4 million to daylight another section of the river.
Patroon Creek: $1 million for a daylighting project.
Mohawk River: Over $5 million, including for sewage treatment upgrades in Rome, Utica and Fultonville/Fonda, as well as stormwater and sewer infiltration investigations in Ilion, Mohawk and Schenectady.
Wallkill River: $850,000 for New Paltz to replace sewers and investigate sources of infiltration and inflow that may cause overflows of sewage to the Wallkill River.
Hudson River: $880,000 for investigations and projects to reduce sewage overflows in Peekskill and Watervliet.
Rondout Creek: $750,000 for Napanoch Sewer District improvements to improve water quality in the Rondout Creek.
Esopus Creek: $750,000 to extend a sewer line to Lake Katrine
Wappinger Creek: $926,000 to reduce phosphorus and sediment pollution of Wappinger Lake through use of bioswals and stormwater drainage improvements
Green Brook and Noster Kill: $357,000 to remove culverts and dams and restore habitat in portions of the Greater Stockport and Roeliff Jansen Kill watersheds, respectively, in Columbia County.