44.0°,
Mostly Cloudy A setback for Bay Park outfall pipe
Feds say ‘no’ to funds for ocean effluent line; other sources eyed
State and county elected officials, along with local activists and environmentalists, were disappointed to learn that an application for federal funds that would have helped pay for an outfall pipe from the Bay Park Sewage Treatment Plant to the Atlantic Ocean has been rejected.
“While it is disappointing that New York was not successful in securing additional funding in the National Disaster Resilience competition, it is important that this project advance in a timely manner with previously announced state and local funding,” said Basil Seggos, acting commissioner of the state Department of Environmental Conservation.
The proposal was part of a request made by New York state last year in a $1 billion national competition focusing on disaster resilience sponsored by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Even though New York was among the competition’s winners, announced on Jan. 21, it received only $35.8 million, which will be earmarked for public housing.
State officials had counted on the competition as a way to provide a third of the funding for the outfall pipe, which Nassau County officials said would now cost $425 million to $450 million to build.
The $150 million in HUD funding would have supplemented a $104 million capital commitment from Nassau County, along with $45.4 million in New York State Environmental Facilities Corporation grants and loans obtained by the county. The state is also awaiting an answer on Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s proposal to use $150 million of the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s Hazard Mitigation Grant Program allocation for the state for the ongoing recovery from Hurricane Sandy, which is currently under review. Another $5 million for the pipe is allocated in the state budget, which Cuomo announced this month.
“This is not the last bite at the apple for the outfall pipe,” said Marisa Kaufman, a spokeswoman for U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer, an advocate of the pipe. “Other funding options, including the FEMA Hazard Mitigation Grant Program funds, are still under review, and we’re hard at work to secure that award.”
