The village of Hempstead recently received $1.75 million in American Rescue Plan Act, or ARPA, funding to address the community’s concerns about water quality. The money will allow the new water treatment project to break ground.
“Hempstead Village is the largest village in the United States, and we contribute to the tax base of Nassau County,” Hempstead Mayor Waylyn Hobbs Jr. said. “These funds are going to help us break ground and get the job going.”
The county legislature voted unanimously on Sept. 23 to release the funds for the initial stages of the project, which is the demolition of the current water meter shop and the start of the construction of a new treatment building. The need for reformed water treatment comes from the elevated levels of 1,4 dioxane found in the water supply of Hempstead and surrounding areas, deemed to be a likely human carcinogenic.
The American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 allocated $12.75 billion to New York for “critical response and recovery efforts related to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic,” according to the Budget.ny.gov.
Nassau County received $385 million, and according to the Nassau County government website, the funds must be allocated by County Executive Bruce Blakeman by the end of 2024 and expended by the end of 2026.
This funding comes after a long campaign by Legislators Scott Davis and Siela Bynoe. ARPA funds have been allocated to Great Neck, Farmingdale, and Hicksville for similar water treatment plans in past months. Davis and Bynoe filed their initial requests in May and said they spent months “negotiating” with Blakeman until he approved the money for Hempstead.
“What makes this a particularly important moment for all of us is not only us sticking together as a caucus, but what this cause is for,” Davis said. “It doesn’t get more basic than clean water, and this will go a long way toward helping that.”