Mr. Bishop announced the award Friday, saying $2.3 million would come to the village as a grant with the remaining $1.7 million as a zero-interest "hardship" loan through American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funding.

"I am pleased that the Obama administration has placed a high priority on rebuilding our infrastructure, including clean water and wastewater treatment projects," Mr. Bishop said in a press release. He called sewage and wastewater management "major concerns for residents throughout Suffolk County."

The federal stimulus package designated $432 million in funds to the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, the largest grant ever provided to a state in EPA history, according to Mr. Bishop. The funding will finance clean water infrastructure projects in communities across the state. Ten projects, including the Greenport treatment facility, are receiving a total of $170 million in this first round of funding.

"We are absolutely thrilled about the project," Greenport Mayor David Nyce said. "This is a major undertaking in a very small village." While he has been lobbying Washington for money for the project, he wasn't expecting the village would get more than $1 million, he said. The $4 million award takes some pressure off a village facing repayment of a $9 million debt from the Mitchell Park development and what could be as much as another $5.1 million to bring its electric plant up to par. Beginning in 2014, the village will face heavy payments toward its Mitchell Park debt.

In announcing his intention to put the sewer project out to bid this spring, Mr. Nyce was depending on a $4 million no interest loan former village treasurer Steve Brautigam had negotiated for Greenport. But the federal stimulus grant will enable the village to have to draw down less of that money.

The mayor successfully fought a two-year struggle with the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation that was requiring it to meet nitrogen level standards by 2014 for which there is no existing technology. The requirements had been spelled out by the federal Environmental Protection Agency based on limits established by the Long Island Sound Study.

Despite that fact and a campaign by Mr. Nyce and former trustee David Corwin to change the requirements, the DEC had held firm until January. Then DEC officials blinked. Regional director Peter Scully announced that the village wouldn't be required to undertake any additional nitrogen removal upgrades.

"I trust this is welcome news," DEC regional water manager William Spitz wrote in a letter to Mr. Nyce announcing the change.

The mayor is still hoping to streamline the $5.1 million upgrade project at the electric plant. Some cosmetic work is already being done by village staff members to cut some of the costs and he and utilities chief Jack Naylor are reviewing the plans drawn up by consultant Robert Braun with an eye to scaling back the project while assuring that the long-neglected utilities are brought up to par.

The mayor is also appealing to the New York Power Authority in the hope that it might grant another rate increase to offset some of the borrowing for the electric plant project.

jlane@timesreview.com

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2 comments found

money : 4/13/2009
till both wingate and abatelli are removed it will only get worse

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Sewer Treatment Plant upgrades: : 4/9/2009
Where did the prior years TAXES go? Fact: Grants are collected taxes, so there is no "Free money" but just higher taxes. I would like to know who will be drinking from the Sewer Treatment Plant after all the "Grant" money is spent on it? Can anybody guarantee that the taxes will not go up? Has there been a inflow study on the sewers and sewer pipe relined using a no dig 50 year guarantee eco friendly repair system? Until you control the inflow, you can not repair or size a Sewer Treatment Plant BECAUSE you can not control Mother Nature. Danny RangerSewer.com

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