New Rochelle Gets State Money For Winter Road Equipment
The $400,000 award buys segmented plow blades and brine sprayers meant to cut rock salt use.
By Adrian Kovalenko ·
Gov. Kathy Hochul announced Friday that New Rochelle will receive $400,000 from the state to buy segmented plow blades and truck-mounted brine spray systems. The city plans to use the equipment to lower the amount of rock salt spread on its streets and the chloride that reaches local streams.
The award sits inside a larger state release. New York is directing more than $249 million toward 181 water quality projects covering drinking water supplies, aging pipes, wastewater plants and aquatic habitats. Of that sum, the Department of Environmental Conservation's Water Quality Improvement Project program is distributing more than $246 million across 139 projects.
New Rochelle's grant draws on a separate pot. The state set aside $17 million in Clean Water Infrastructure funding for salt storage and road salt reduction under its "Don't Be Salty, New York" campaign, which also covers brine-making gear, brine storage tanks and winter maintenance technology.
Other towns on the list include Franklin County, awarded $600,000 for an enclosed sand and salt storage building intended to curb runoff into the Lower Salmon River and Lower Trout River watersheds. Peekskill received $2.5 million to address structural deficiencies and spillway capacity at the Lower Wiccopee Dam. The Niagara Falls Water Board received $10 million to upgrade its wastewater treatment plant.
Hochul said more than $206 million of the statewide money will go to environmental justice communities. The state also put roughly $122 million toward 63 projects in watersheds that have seen harmful algal blooms in the past five years or that answer recommendations in state action plans.
The grants moved through the state's Consolidated Funding Application process, which lets municipalities file one application across several state programs. Money for the water quality program comes mainly from the 2022 Clean Water, Clean Air, Green Jobs Environmental Bond Act, the Environmental Protection Fund and the state's Clean Water Infrastructure program.
Hochul called access to clean water "a fundamental human right" and said the awards build on prior state spending on water infrastructure, flood resilience and habitat protection.
