New state funding assists wastewater infrastructure needs in 10 New York communities, including Chemung County

Albany, N.Y., December 14--State Senator Tom O'Mara (R,C,I-Big Flats), chairman of the Senate Environmental Conservation Committee, said that New York is providing nearly $400,000 in state grants to 10 municipalities statewide, including Cehmung County, to assist these communities improve the detection, monitoring and reporting of "Combined Sewer Overflows" (CSO) under the Sewage Pollution Right to Know law enacted in 2013. 

"I appreciate and commend the state Department of Environmental Conservation's ongoing cooperation and efforts to develop this notification system, and administer this first-in-the-state grant program to assist municipalities. Communities in my legislative district are in great need of assistance with wastewater infrastructure and lack detection and monitoring equipment to provide citizens with useful information about a possible overflow. The award of these funds to Chemung County is a great start to help provide municipalities with the proper tools to notify residents in a timely manner should an event occur."

The CSO grants provide municipalities the resources needed to install equipment and develop reporting tools to better inform the public. The grants focus on smaller communities which typically lack funding to install such equipment. Prior to receiving the state grants, some of the winning municipalities lacked detection and monitoring equipment to provide local residents with useful and timely information.

O'Mara said that Chemung County has been awarded a $22,500 state grant to install electronic motion detection devices, which record the start and stop time of an overflow event at six CSOs in the county.

Read the full announcement HERE.