By Staff Reporter
NIAGARA FALLS — The biggest Western New York check in Albany’s new round of water grants is $25 million for the Niagara Falls sewage treatment plant. It is the largest single award in the region, and it covers about 7 percent of what the job is now expected to cost.
Gov. Kathy Hochul announced nearly $500 million in Water Infrastructure Improvement Act and Intermunicipal grants on Oct. 20, the first installment of the $3.75 billion clean water commitment in the 2027 state budget. The money goes to 106 drinking water and sewer projects statewide whose total cost is $1.4 billion, according to the governor’s office.
“Investing in water infrastructure is an investment in the future of every New Yorker,” Ms. Hochul said. “My administration will continue ensuring communities have the financial support and tools they need to protect public health and safeguard our natural resources while keeping these critical investments affordable.”
Western New York’s $66.6 million
The Environmental Facilities Corporation’s award list shows 15 Western New York projects sharing $66.6 million. The governor’s office rounded it to $67 million. The awards:
- Niagara Falls Public Water Authority, wastewater treatment plant biological conversion: $25,000,000
- Buffalo Sewer Authority, Breckenridge Street combined sewer overflow control: $6,538,225
- Buffalo Sewer Authority, sewer patrol point 341A, Genesee at Kerns: $2,056,768
- Town of Grand Island, water treatment plant upgrades: $5,000,000
- Niagara County Water District, water treatment plant and pump station upgrades: $5,000,000
- Village of Westfield, water system improvements: $5,000,000
- Town of Friendship, sanitary sewer improvements (enhanced grant): $4,625,006
- Town of Randolph, water system improvements: $4,456,900
- Village of Wilson, lead service line replacement: $2,213,750
- City of North Tonawanda, lead service line inventory: $1,999,620
- Town of Tonawanda, lead service line inventory: $1,978,000
- Town of Amity, Water District No. 1: $1,024,210
- Town of Newfane, wastewater plant compliance and collection system: $720,807
- Village of Depew, inflow and infiltration improvements, phase 10: $697,075
- Village of Allegany, lead service line inventory: $248,000
About $6.4 million of the regional total goes to finding and replacing lead pipes in North Tonawanda, the Town of Tonawanda, Wilson and Allegany. The Buffalo Sewer Authority’s two grants, $8.6 million together, target combined sewer overflows, the system that sends sewage and stormwater into local waterways during heavy rain.
A 1977 plant and a $338 million fix
The Niagara Falls award is the one that shows the size of the gap.
The city’s wastewater plant is a 48-million-gallon-a-day physical-chemical facility that uses activated carbon and began operating in April 1977, according to a September request for qualifications from the Niagara Falls Water Board. Its average flow is now about half its design capacity, because the population and the industrial users it was built for have shrunk.
The plant’s discharge “can produce a final effluent with a visible contrast to the receiving waters in the lower Niagara River,” the water board wrote. That and other factors led to an order on consent with the state Department of Environmental Conservation requiring upgrades to meet new effluent limits, including those in a discharge permit that took effect Sept. 1.
The fix is a conversion to biological treatment. In July, the Niagara Falls Public Water Authority voted to authorize up to $338,239,000 in bonds for the project, up from the $263,224,352 it authorized in 2024, after engineering work produced a higher estimate, according to resolutions in the authority’s July 24 meeting packet. The resolution notes the bond amount is to be reduced by grants, and that the full authorization was required to apply for state grants like the one just awarded.
“Cannot be considered affordable”
The same packet includes the preliminary engineering report Hazen and Sawyer prepared for the water board in February, and it is blunt about who pays.
The report found that households at the 20th percentile of income in Niagara Falls already spend more than a quarter of their disposable income on basic water and sewer service, and median-income households spend 7 percent, far above the 2 to 4 percent range commonly treated as affordable. It estimates that 40 percent of households in the city are low-income and 27.3 percent of residents live below the poverty line.
“The improvements recommended in this PER cannot be considered affordable because existing resources, including existing grant programs, are not expected to be sufficient to avoid alarming and unaffordable increases in sewer rates without additional direct funding from State or Federal sources,” the report says.
It also warns that the recent drop in industrial discharges “could shift a significant portion of the future capital and operational costs on to homeowners.” The water board serves 17,633 residential accounts, and its 2026 revenue projections already assume a 5.9 percent increase in water and wastewater rates, the report says.
The engineers recommended studying whether the plant could be “derated,” built smaller to match today’s flows, to cut construction costs, with a hydraulic study expected by the end of 2026.
What the grant does and doesn’t do
State officials frame the grants as savings for ratepayers. The program is estimated to save communities $1 billion in debt service statewide and create 22,400 jobs, the governor’s office said.
“EFC’s WIIA grants are proven vehicles for affordability and will help ensure these critical projects won’t be held up because of costs,” said Maureen A. Coleman, president and CEO of the Environmental Facilities Corporation.
State Health Commissioner Dr. James McDonald said, “These grants will help remove lead service lines and combat harmful emerging contaminants from drinking water while protecting public health for years to come.”
For Niagara Falls, $25 million is a start on a bill that will run into the hundreds of millions. Even with the grant, more than $313 million of the current estimate remains to be covered by low-interest state loans, other grants or the city’s ratepayers. The state budget’s $3.75 billion plan is meant to be paid out over several rounds, which gives the water board and its state representatives a chance to argue for more. The engineers’ own report says the project needs “additional direct funding from State or Federal sources” to avoid rate increases that low-income households cannot absorb.
The Buffalo Chronicle has asked the Niagara Falls Water Board and the Environmental Facilities Corporation how the remaining cost will be financed and what it could mean for residential sewer bills. This story will be updated with their responses.
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