NYS water grant workshop attracts record attendance

March 14, 2024 at 1:35 a.m.

This year’s workshop updating local government and school officials and environmental advocates on 2024 state clean water grant opportunities drew a record number of people to the Jay Heritage Center in Rye on Thursday, Feb. 29. It was organized by Assemblyman Steve Otis. (Courtesy photo of Steve Otis’s office)

Westchester local government staff and officials, school representatives and environmental advocates received important updates on 2024 state grant opportunities at the 2024 Clean Water Grant Workshop hosted by State Assemblyman Steve Otis and officials of the NYS Environmental Facilities Corporation (EFC) and the Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) at the Jay Heritage Center in Rye on Thursday, Feb. 29.

The goal of this annual Westchester clean water workshop is to provide municipal and school district officials and staff with the latest information on the 2024 round of grants and the details regarding this year’s application process. Over 60 attendees heard presentations from six agencies that focused on currently open or upcoming grant application rounds for 2024.

    Assemblyman Steve Otis speaks to the record number of attendees at his clean water grant workshop on Thursday, Feb. 29.
 Courtesy of Steve Otis’s office 

One highlight of this year’s workshop was a presentation on NYS DEC’s Resilient NY Streams Study Program, which the agency has undertaken in six watersheds in Westchester County. The workshop also included details on local government’s ability to apply for several key water grant programs, including the Water Infrastructure Improvement Act (WIIA) and the Intermunicipal Grant (IMG) programs, administered by EFC and the Water Quality Improvement Program (WQIP), administered by DEC.

Assemblyman Steve Otis said, “We have held these Westchester workshops every year since 2015 when the WIIA program was created. The goal is to bring state water grant funding to Westchester communities to fund local projects. Special thanks go to Governor Kathy Hochul, NYS EFC President Maureen Coleman, and NYS DEC Commissioner Basil Seggos for the tremendous staff support for this valuable annual meeting. We were again joined this year by State Senator Shelley Mayer with whom I work closely on flood mitigation and water grant funding issues.”

The full program was capped off by descriptions of grant writing assistance and other funding opportunities from the federal Sea Grant/Long Island Sound Study program.

Assemblyman Otis commented, “With 10 speakers, representing six different agencies, and a full house representing local governments throughout the county, this was our most successful water grant workshop since we began hosting them almost a decade ago.”

Applications for this year’s $325 million round of WIIA and IMG grant programs are due on June 14, 2024. More information about the application process can be found on EFC’s website. Other programs will be announced later in the year.