TOMPKINS COUNTY (WENY) -- On Thursday morning, Senator Lea Webb announced that over $5 million in state funding has been awarded to several towns in Tompkins County through the NYS DEC's Water Quality Improvement Project. This money will not only help support towns like Danby, Lansing, and Ulysses but it will protect Cayuga Lake.

“Thanks to this funding, our local municipalities will be able to complete important water infrastructure projects to protect the long-term health of our watershed,” said Senator Lea Webb. “This funding will help protect water quality by improving catch basins and culverts in strategic locations and reducing phosphorus discharge into the lake, protecting against Harmful Algal Blooms. I applaud the partnerships between our state and federal government that make these projects possible. These grants include funds from the Environmental Protection Fund (EPF), which I was proud to support in last year’s state budget.”

The three towns will receive different amounts of funding for different projects that all aim to protect Cayuga Lake. The Town of Danby is receiving most of the funding, sitting at $4,587,272 to construct a sanitary sewer collection system and two package membrane bioreactor wastewater treatment plants for the Central and West Hamlet Centers to replace inadequate onsite septic systems. Officials say this major project is intended to reduce phosphorus entering Cayuga Lake.

The next project is in the Town of Lansing. It will receive $325,000 to purchase a vacuum truck to remove debris from catch basins in Lansing, the Village of Cayuga Heights, and Tompkins County. The vacuum truck intends to ensure that the catch basins will remain clear of debris and protect water quality.

Lastly is $520,352 for the Town of Ulysses. The money will be used to replace an undersized culvert on Garrett Road with a new arch culvert with a natural channel bottom. This new culvert will reduce erosion, stabilize the streambank, and improve aquatic connectivity in the Cayuga Lake watershed.

In a prepared statement, Senator Webb says the projects will protect freshwater quality here in New York by reducing the amount of polluted stormwater runoff entering lakes, rivers, and streams. It will also help mitigate against flooding and the impacts of climate change by increasing the resilience of our water infrastructure.

The funding from the project was awarded through the NYS DEC's Water Quality Improvement Project but funding comes from the State’s Environmental Protection Fund (EPF), the Clean Water Infrastructure Act (CWIA), the Clean Water, Clean Air, Green Jobs Environmental Bond Act of 2022 (Bond Act), and the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law funding through the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).