Over $8 million in grants is headed to Ontario County to help improve water quality across the county. The grants awarded this week by the state will go to support projects that will help protect drinking water, update aging water infrastructure, reduce contributors to harmful algal blooms, and improve aquatic habitat in communities statewide.
The Ontario County projects awarded funding include:
- $340,000 to the Ontario County Soil and Water Conservation District will implement a county-wide roadside stabilization program. The program will hydroseed road ditches to prevent erosion. The program will reduce sediment and nutrient loading in the Canadice, Honeoye, and Canandaigua Lake watersheds.
- $250,000 to Ontario County Soil and Water Conservation District will purchase live edge plow blades, salt application control devices, and weather monitoring equipment to reduce salt application. The project will protect water quality within the Finger Lakes watershed.
- $4,953,448 to the Town of Phelps will install over five miles of low-pressure sewer system with grinder pumps to connect properties with inadequate onsite septic systems to the City of Geneva’s Marsh Creek wastewater treatment plant. This project will reduce phosphorus entering Seneca Lake.
- $831,686 to the Town of Richmond will replace several undersized eroding culverts on Big Tree, Cole, and Allen’s Hill Roads. The project will install box culverts with natural streambeds to better improve stream flow, facilitate the movement of aquatic life, and reduce erosion in the Honeoye Lake watershed.
- $316,970 to the Town of Richmond will replace two eroding, undersized culverts on Abbey Road. The project will install properly sized culverts to reduce flooding, and nutrient loading and increase aquatic connectivity in the Honeoye Lake watershed.
- $94,500 to the Village of Manchester will construct a salt storage building to cover a currently exposed salt pile. The facility will protect groundwater within a principal aquifer.
- $1,000,000 to the Village of Phelps will install an effluent disinfection system at the village’s wastewater treatment facility. This project will improve the water quality of the Canandaigua Lake Outlet by reducing pathogens in the treatment plant’s discharge.
“Every person deserves access to clean water—which is why New York is implementing a comprehensive strategy to fund infrastructure upgrades and replacement and other generational investments that ensure the long-term protection of water bodies,” Governor Kathy Hochul said. “Focusing on environmental justice communities that have long borne the brunt of environmental pollution helps further support historically overlooked communities as we help safeguard their health for generations to come.”
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