Rye Will Get $10M From State To Start Needed Sewer Upgrades

RYE, NY — Rye is flush with money for planned sewer upgrades thanks to an infusion of state funding.

Governor Kathy Hochul announced on Monday that around $110 million was awarded to 86 projects to improve water quality across the state. The grant programs support projects that will help protect drinking water, combat contributors to harmful algal blooms, update aging water infrastructure, and improve aquatic habitats in communities statewide, with more than $90 million of the funding supporting water quality improvements in Environmental Justice communities that have been disproportionately impacted by environmental pollution.

The City of Rye's Phase III Sanitary Sewer Improvements project was awarded $10 million through the new round of funding. Rye will use the funding, plus the city's $2.5 million matching obligation, to upgrade its sewer system by completing spot repairs and replacements, installing around 22,000 linear feet of pipe lining, and repairing 500 manhole defects city-wide. This project is expected to reduce the amount of untreated wastewater entering the Long Island Sound during storm events.

"This grant will help Rye enormously as we pay for our ever more expensive list of badly-needed capital projects," Rye City Mayor Josh Cohn said. "Our thanks to Governor Hochul and the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, and especially to Senator Shelley Mayer and Assemblyman Otis for their critical support in the WQIP process. Thanks and congratulations are due to our City staff, as well, for all the hard work needed to gain this important success."

In 2019, the City of Rye completed a Sewer System Evaluation Survey (SSES) to locate the parts of its sewer system in need of rehabilitation. The implementation of certain projects identified in the SSES corresponds with the Consent Order the city entered into with the NYS DEC and a federal Stipulated Order that the city entered into to settle the Save the Sound Clean Water Act lawsuit.

Rye has invested over $8 million toward completing critical sewer infrastructure upgrades over the last few years, including through the successful execution of a 2018 $3.9 million grant award under WQIP for several large sewer repairs and pump station projects.

"New York continues to provide historic levels of financial support to ensure all New Yorkers have access to clean water for generations to come," Governor Hochul said. "We will continue upgrading New York’s aging infrastructure and strengthening our water security — improving the quality of life and public health of communities across the state."

The $110 million in grants were administered by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC), with more than $108 million going to 51 projects through the State’s Water Quality Improvement Project (WQIP) program and nearly $2 million going to 35 projects through the Non-Agricultural Nonpoint Source Planning and Municipal Separate Storm Sewer System Mapping Grant (NPG). New York State continues to prioritize funding for projects that may help decrease the occurrence of harmful algal blooms (HABs). Nearly half of the WQIP and NPG awarded grants, totaling approximately $45 million, will support projects in watersheds known to have experienced HABs in the past five years and/or help implement a project identified in a DEC HABs Action Plan.

"Governor Hochul continues to demonstrate her commitment to improving water quality, I know how important it is to her," New York State Department of Environmental Conservation Commissioner Basil Seggos said. "She recognizes that we can't sustain the health of our communities and environment without access to clean water. The grants announced today will help communities across the state safeguard our drinking water so families know they have access to something that's not a privilege, but a human right."

The WQIP grant program funds projects that directly improve water quality or aquatic habitat, or protect a drinking water source. Supported in part by the New York's Environmental Protection Fund (EPF) and Clean Water Infrastructure Improvement Act funding, WQIP projects include municipal wastewater treatment upgrades, non-agricultural nonpoint source abatement and control, land acquisition projects for source water protection, salt storage construction, aquatic connectivity restoration, and marine habitat restoration.