North Tonawanda – Today, March 11, 2022, New York State Assemblyman Bill Conrad called on the State to dedicate American Rescue Plan monies to the repair of the City of North Tonawanda’s Wastewater Treatment Plant on River Road.

The American Rescue Plan promises to deliver $350 billion in emergency federal funds to local municipalities in need of post-pandemic relief. Nearly $13 billion of that has been earmarked for the recovery effort across New York State.

The North Tonawanda Wastewater Treatment Plant is in desperate need of roughly $30 million worth of long-delayed upgrades and repairs, $10 million of which is immediately necessary in order to stave off a catastrophic plant failure. The plant’s interior is suffering from severely leaky overhead pipes, which regularly expel a large quantity of water, flooding the plant’s floors. In the recent past, an aging digester caused untreated wastewater to swamp the exterior property, in dangerous proximity to the Niagara River.

Conrad, who has been advocating for the funding in this year’s State budget process, is also urging New York’s leadership to provide aid in an expedited manner by way of the American Rescue Plan.

Assemblyman Bill Conrad said, “The North Tonawanda Wastewater Treatment Plant represents a critically important daily function of city infrastructure. It is thanks to this plant’s operation that homeowners’ basements stay dry, and the Niagara River is spared discharges of untreated sewage. Therefore, its mechanical functionality and maintenance are musts. Having seen firsthand the deteriorating condition of the plant – and fearing for the health and safety of its workers, our residents and our waterways – I know these repairs cannot wait any longer, nor can North Tonawanda’s taxpayers bear the full burden of their costs. The purpose of the American Rescue Plan was to shore up the fiscal stability of our local communities, which have sustained devastating losses related to the pandemic. I am hard-pressed to identify a more urgent request for funds in the 140th Assembly District than this one out of North Tonawanda.”

North Tonawanda Mayor Austin Tylec said, “This project is critical to the residents of North Tonawanda, and I thank Assemblyman Conrad for jumping in to assist us in obtaining this support, in hopes the taxpayers won’t be made to carry the load of a multi-million-dollar expense. This is also an environmental concern, as untreated wastewater poses a threat to the water quality and ecological balance of the Niagara River. The state of the Wastewater Treatment Plant has been a pressing problem for years, always being pushed down the list of priorities by the previous administration and council. Now is the time to act, before the plant shuts down altogether, leading to backups into basements, or the disastrous release of sewage into the river. To put it bluntly, Assemblyman Conrad and I are hurrying to prevent a citywide disaster.”