New Nassau Initiative Will Help Providers Clean Water

SYOSSET, NY — On Wednesday, Nassau County Executive Laura Curran announced a new $1.5 million fund that will be made available to water districts around the county to help them clean contaminants out of the water.

The money is part of the $62.9 million aid package recently approved by the Nassau County Legislature, which is funded by money from the federal government's American Rescue Plan. It's part of $200 million the county received as part of the federal government's COVID economic recovery package.

“Nassau County is committed to providing communities with the resources they need to make critical upgrades to their water systems," Curran said. "By assisting water districts with these important infrastructure improvements, we will ensure cleaner water for residents while preventing costs from being passed onto ratepayers.”

The county will be provided water districts with grants of up to $50,000 to help with the costs for the treatment and removal of contaminants, such as 1,4 Dioxane and PFO/PFOAs. It is up to the water suppliers to remove the contaminants, and the grants will help them do so.

The money can be used for:

• Administration and oversight of distribution of grant funds to ensure compliance with ARP/US Treasury guidelines
• Study, planning/design of emerging contamination occurring within the water district
• Purchase of equipment, materials and supplies to advance to removal of emerging contamination from the water supply of the district
• Installation of equipment to advance removal of emerging contamination from the water supply
• Purchase of support equipment such as Information Technology (IT) related to systems integral to treatment process within the district’s distribution system
• Development of operations manuals/guidelines/materials for use by water supplier personnel specifically pointed to the removal of emerging contamination
• Maintenance activities of systems already on-line and removing emerging contamination. Such activities could include the removal of spent materials used in the treatment of contamination, or the purchase of new materials to be used in the treatment process, such as Activated Carbon.
• Defraying the cost of laboratory testing for emerging contaminants