The Village of Johnson City will receive $3,687,000 in state funding to help identify and replace aging lead service lines.
Gov. Kathy Hochul announced the award as part of more than $130 million in Lead Infrastructure Forgiveness and Transformation grants distributed to communities across New York. The program is designed to support drinking-water projects without placing the full cost on local ratepayers.
Lead service lines connect homes and other buildings to public water mains. State officials say those lines can be a major source of lead in drinking water when plumbing corrodes, particularly in older communities and in buildings constructed before 1986.
The grants work with federal Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act funding. New York says the state money will repay the loan portion of eligible communities’ funding packages after projects are completed, converting that portion into grant support.
Awards were prioritized for communities whose median household income is below 80 percent of the regionally adjusted statewide median or whose poverty rate is above the statewide rate.
Johnson City is one of 24 recipients listed in the announcement. The City of Ithaca also received $4.91 million through the same round. State officials say the money can be used for lead service line inventory and replacement work intended to reduce exposure and improve drinking-water infrastructure.
