New York's Suffolk County is slated to receive $388 million in state and federal funding to improve sewer infrastructure.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced on Sept. 12 that the Long Island county will receive the funding to expand sanitary sewer service to 8,075 parcels of land that currently utilize on-site septic systems. Cuomo said the project, which has been approved the Federal Emergency Management Agency's Hazard Mitigation Grant Program, is designed to help mitigate flooding and septic system failure such as that caused by Hurricane Sandy three years ago.
"This funding allows Suffolk County to improve and expand its sewer system in a way that not only reduces threats to water quality and contamination, but also strengthen Long Island's coast to better withstand future storms," said Cuomo in a statement.
The project's initial design and environmental review phase is being financed through $24.2 million in funding from New York State Environmental Facilities Corporation's State Revolving Fund and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development's Community Development Block Grant-Disaster Recovery Program. These two entities along with the federal Hazard Mitigation Grant Program will also fund the $364.3 million construction phase, according to Cuomo.
Suffolk County has a population of around 1.5 million and is rated A3 by Moody's Investors Service.
