SCWA will receive a total of $18.9 million in state grant funding following Governor Kathy Hochul’s announcement yesterday that the New York State Environmental Facilities Corporation (EFC) has awarded $638 million in grants to municipalities and public authorities state-wide.
“On behalf of SCWA ratepayers, we thank Governor Hochul for providing this funding to help us continue to provide high quality drinking water to Suffolk County residents,” said SCWA Board Chairman Patrick G. Halpin. “The Suffolk County Water Authority has proactively addressed emerging contaminants through comprehensive testing and the development of innovative treatment technologies. We’ve already allocated tens of millions to remove emerging contaminants from groundwater, but there is a long way to go. This state funding keeps costs down for our ratepayers.”
The $18.9 million for SCWA water quality improvement projects will fund new state-of-the-art Advanced Oxidation Process (AOP) water treatment systems in Kings Park, Brentwood, Central Islip, Northport, East Northport, Port Jefferson Station, Hauppauge, Ronkonkoma and Huntington, as well as new water main installation in Manorville to connect residents currently using private wells to safe, constantly tested SCWA water.
A complete breakdown of recent SCWA grant awards from New York State is below:
Earlier this year SCWA received an additional $3.5 million for the Manorville water main installation via Congressionally Direct Spending at the request of Senator Schumer, Senator Gillibrand and Congressman Zeldin. The Town of Brookhaven has also contributed $2 million to this project.
In addition to the new AOP systems designed to remove 1,4-dioxane from drinking water, SCWA continues to install granular activated carbon treatment systems to address perfluorinated compounds collectively known as PFAS, even at well sites where raw water is below the state’s maximum contaminant level of 10 parts-per-trillion. This work will continue until there is no detectable PFAS left in the SCWA distribution system.
All water provided by SCWA meets or surpasses new state regulations for emerging contaminants. Additionally, SCWA is suing the manufacturers of PFAS to help pay the costs of these treatment systems, so SCWA customers are not paying to clean up a mess they did not create.
The Suffolk County Water Authority is an independent public-benefit corporation operating under the authority of the Public Authorities Law of the State of New York. Serving approximately 1.2 million Suffolk County residents, the Authority operates without taxing power on a not-for-profit basis.