Senator Lea Webb Announces Over $10 Million in State Funding to Improve Water Quality in Broome County

BINGHAMTON, NY -  Today, Senator Lea Webb (SD52) announced that over $10 million in state funding has been awarded through the NYS DEC’s Water Quality Improvement Project to support critical infrastructure projects in the Town of Vestal and the Village of Endicott. 

 “Thanks to this funding, our local municipalities will be able to complete important water infrastructure projects to protect the long-term health of our watershed,” said Senator Lea Webb. “This funding will help protect water quality by decreasing the amount of road salt that ends up in our waterways and by reducing phosphorus and nitrogen discharge into the Susquehanna River and Chesapeake Bay watershed. I applaud the partnerships between our state and federal government that make these projects possible. These grants include funds from the Environmental Protection Fund (EPF), which I was proud to support in last year’s state budget.” 

The Town of Vestal will receive $250,000.00 to outfit their winter maintenance trucks with road salt reduction equipment, including live edge plow blades, pre-wetting systems, and de-icing systems. The use of this equipment will reduce road salt usage and will help protect groundwater wells and the Susquehanna River.

The Village of Endicott will receive $10 million to install a Moving Bed Biofilm Reactor (MBBR)  to optimize nutrient removal at their wastewater treatment facility. This project will reduce phosphorus and nitrogen discharge to the Susquehanna River and Chesapeake Bay watershed.

These projects will protect the quality of our freshwater here in New York by reducing the amount of polluted stormwater runoff entering lakes, rivers, and streams. In addition, these projects will help mitigate against flooding and the impacts of climate change by increasing the resilience of our water infrastructure.  

Funding for these projects comes from the State’s Environmental Protection Fund (EPF), the Clean Water Infrastructure Act (CWIA), the Clean Water, Clean Air, Green Jobs Environmental Bond Act of 2022 (Bond Act), and the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law funding through the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

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