USDA awards funding for two Central New York water/sewage projects

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has awarded funding for water/sewage system projects in two communities in Central New York.

U.S. Senators Charles Schumer (D–N.Y.) and Kirsten Gillibrand (D–N.Y.) announced the funding in separate Friday news releases on Schumer’s website.

The USDA awarded the Oswego County town of Hastings a grant of $981,000 to improve its sewage system.

The department also awarded an $855,000 grant and $1.1 million loan to the Cayuga County town of Throop.

Officials in Throop will use the federal funding to create a water system that provides access to clean drinking water for local residents who currently extract their water from wells with “poor” water quality and/or purchase bottled water for consumption, the senators said in the news release.

Throop’s Water District #1 doesn’t currently have any water lines, “hampering economic growth and creating undue hardship for residents,” the lawmakers said.

In Hastings, many properties currently rely on on-site, subsurface-disposal systems.

Subsurface systems are “prone to failure” during wet weather, posing a threat to local groundwater and the environment, according to the lawmakers.

Local officials will use the USDA grant to install an 8-inch gravity sewer, a pressure-collection system, and a duplex submersible grinder pump station.

The system will convey the sewage to a wastewater-treatment plant in Fort Brewerton. 

The project will create a “clean” sewage system that is compliant with regulations and compatible with area-wide economic-development initiatives, the senators said.

Contact Reinhardt at ereinhardt@cnybj.com