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The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced New York has received nearly $207 million in clean water funding awarded through the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA, or also known as Bipartisan Infrastructure Law) for water infrastructure improvements. This is the first installment of a total of nearly $427 million in Bipartisan Infrastructure Law funding going to New York for water infrastructure, with an additional $220 million expected to be awarded later this fall.
EPA Office of Water Assistant Administrator Radhika Fox recently highlighted the funding at an event in Buffalo, N.Y., where she joined Congressman Brian Higgins and Mayor Byron Brown to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the historic Clean Water Act and to break ground on a Bird Island Treatment Facility rehabilitation and upgrades project. EPA Regional Administrator Lisa F. Garcia and New York Environmental Facilities Corporation President and CEO Maureen Coleman also attended the celebration.
“The upgrades to the Bird Island Treatment Facility will not only improve water quality for residents of Buffalo, they will also help downstream communities and Lake Ontario for generations to come,” Fox said. “I want to congratulate the city of Buffalo and the State of New York on this project. We look forward to many more water projects as New York invests $427 million—the first of five years of funding through this historic law.”
President Joe Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law allocates more than $50 billion to EPA toward repairing the nation’s essential water infrastructure, which helps communities access clean, safe and reliable drinking water, increase resilience, collect and treat wastewater to protect public health, clean up pollution, and safeguard vital waterways.
EPA has awarded New York nearly $207 million in capitalization grants from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law through its Clean Water State Revolving Fund (SRF) program. These grants supplement nearly $128 million in regular funding to New York’s Clean Water SRF program in fiscal year (FY) 2022. EPA expects to award New York an additional $220 million in FY 2022 capitalization grants from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law through the Drinking Water SRF, which will supplement nearly $29 million in regular funding to New York’s Drinking Water SRF program in FY 2022.
“As the administrator of the State Revolving Funds, EFC celebrates with EPA today the historic level of federal funding awarded to New York from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law,” said NYS Environmental Facilities Corporation President and CEO Maureen A. Coleman. “For eligible municipalities, the coupling of state grants with federal grants available to disadvantaged communities will mean the difference between a community with antiquated or failing facilities and one being able to move forward with constructing new resilient infrastructure.”
Planned projects in New York that the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law will fund include projects like the secondary treatment system rehabilitation and upgrades project at the Bird Island Treatment Facility where officials gathered to celebrate the project’s groundbreaking.
EPA’s SRFs are part of President Biden’s Justice40 initiative, which aims to deliver at least 40% of the benefits from certain federal programs to underserved communities. Furthermore, nearly half the funding available through the SRFs thanks to the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law must be grants or principal forgiveness loans that remove barriers to investing in essential water infrastructure in underserved communities across rural America and in urban centers.
New York has submitted and obtained EPA’s approval of its plans for the use of the FY 2022 funding. Capitalization grants will continue to be awarded on a rolling, state-by-state basis, as more states receive approval throughout FY 2023; states will also receive awards over the course of the next four years. Once grants are awarded, state programs will begin to deliver the funds as grants and loans to communities across their state.
The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law presents the largest-ever funding opportunity for investing in water infrastructure. Find out more about Bipartisan Infrastructure Law programs and other programs that help communities manage their water resources on EPA’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law page. Follow EPA Region 2 on Twitter and visit its Facebook page. For more information about EPA Region 2, visit its website. Information courtesy of Water Finance & Management.