New York Rural Water Association

There has been a change in the way the USDA Rural Development approves expenditures of monies left over after a funded project is complete. Those “wish list” items that used to be easily approved, adding a few more users, purchase of equipment and so on, NEED to be addressed in the PER. Unless specifically identified in the PER, USDA RD will not allow them any more. Talk with your engineer. Have them include a section in the PER addressing projects or equipment that would be considered if the funded project comes in under budget. For more information, please contact the New York Rural Water Association or your Regional Rural Development office.

St. Joseph’s Hospital Health Center is putting a $1.3 million garden on its roof, a project that will suck up more than half a million gallons of rainwater each year.

The Onondaga County War Memorial is getting a new, green $1.5 million plumbing system that will use rainwater to flush toilets and make ice for the Syracuse Crunch hockey team.

The village of Cazenovia is spending $366,000 to turn a dozen historic buildings on its main thoroughfare into rain collectors as well, installing new basins and drains that will deposit water into an old-fashioned cistern with a pump handle for village officials and residents to use.

Today, the state Environmental Facilities Corp. announced these three projects were among 40 that won $15 million worth of competitive grants for innovations in green infrastructure.

All told, six projects in Central New York won a little more than $3 million from the public authority run by former Syracuse mayor Matt Driscoll.

St. Joe’s and the War Memorial each won $712,500 from the corporation’s Clean Water State Revolving Fund. The grant money is a mix of 80 percent federal funds from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and 20 percent of borrowed state money, according to an EFC spokeswoman.

All recipients must add a 10 percent match to the grant.

The “green” ice rink is supposed to be ready for the Crunch’s upcoming season this fall.

“It’s something that people can see and that is sparking the conversation that we need so that people understand what green infrastructure is,” County Executive Joanie Mahoney said. “We’re hoping that people can ask more about what it is they can do in their own homes to capture stormwater.”

The more rainwater is used where it falls – either for large, roof-top gardens or back-yard vegetable patches – and the less it goes into the sewage system will reduce the risk of raw sewage overflowing into waterways.

The winning projects in Central New York include:

St. Joe’s is putting a 39,500-square-foot green roof atop its current $79 million expansion that will include emergency, heart and psychiatric services. The garden will be built this year, according to Kevin Flegal, director of facilities services at the hospital.

In Cazenovia, the village won $325,000 toward its rainwater collection project, according to village Trustee Peggy Van Arnam. Part of the water will funnel into nearby Chittenango Creek. The rest will go into a community cistern on Albany Street, the village’s main street.

Cayuga County got $712,500 toward a $833,400 project to rebuild wetlands on the Owasco Flats. The flats sit on the south end of Owasco Lake, which supplies drinking water for more than half of the county’s residents, according to Bruce Natale, an environmental engineer for the county. Over time, the inlet has become a culvert, and the grant will help spread out the flow over land, a process that naturally leaches phosphorus and nitrogen from the water.

Minoa got $307,000 toward a $1 million project to rebuild man-made wetlands on the output side of its sewage treatment facility. The 15-year-old system naturally treats 130,000 gallons a day, according to village Mayor Dick Donovan.

Solvay got $252,000 toward a $295,512 project to keep stormwater out of Geddes Brook and Onondaga Lake.

Taken from the syracuse.com