District Will Receive More Than $19.2 Million in Additional Funding for Water Treatment Infrastructure Projects
The Plainview Water District (PWD) was recently awarded an additional $19.2 million in funding as part of New York State’s Water Infrastructure Improvement Act (WIIA). To date, these awards are the largest round of WIIA grant funding since the program was created in 2017 with a total of more than $638 million statewide and more than $250 million to Long Island alone. The Plainview Water District has now secured in excess of $28 million in grants from New York State over the past five years to help alleviate costs associated with constructing state-of-the-art water treatment facilities to remove emerging contaminants.
“We are thankful to Governor Hochul and the state representatives that have made this funding available so we can continue our mission of providing our residents with the highest quality water possible,” said PWD Chairman Marc Laykind. “The Plainview Water District is proud of the significant progress we have made on our treatment facilities and are thrilled that 100 percent of this grant money will be used to cover costs associated with past and present infrastructure improvements to treat emerging contaminants.”
The Plainview Water District currently has six advanced oxidation process (AOP) treatment systems in use across its service territory. These systems, when coupled with granular activated carbon (GAC) filtration tanks, are the only approved method of removing 1,4-dioxane from the public drinking water supply. Securing over $28 million in grant funding has been crucial to help absorb some of the costs to construct treatment facilities at impacted plant sites throughout the District.
“We have been relentless in our pursuit of constructing new treatment facilities to improve our public water system as well as identifying every possible avenue for funding,” said PWD Commissioner Amanda Field. “We appreciate the significant investment New York State is making into the Plainview-Old Bethpage community, and we are certainly grateful for their assistance in ensuring we are in the position to continue delivering high quality water to our residents.
The Clean Water Infrastructure Act of 2017 seeks to invest $2.5 billion in wastewater and drinking water projects and water quality protection across New York State. It provides at least $1 billion for the New York State WIIA, which assists municipalities in funding water quality infrastructure. To date, $775 million in Water Infrastructure Improvement Act and Intermunicipal Grant funding supports nearly $2.7 billion in total project costs for vital drinking and wastewater infrastructure projects statewide.
“We are very appreciative of all of the support from our region’s elected officials for prioritizing the funding needed to lower the capital costs of these infrastructure investments,” said PWD Commissioner Andrew Bader. “This is exciting news for the Plainview community as current and future residents will continue to enjoy water that meets or surpasses some of the strictest water quality standards in the nation for generations to come.”