Federal Water Tap, May 6: Federal Dollars for Hurricane Sandy Damage

The Environmental Protection Agency will allocate $US 569 million dollars to New Jersey and New York for water and sewer facilities damaged by Hurricane Sandy last October. The money, authorized by Congress, will go into the states’ revolving loan funds for water infrastructure projects. Up to 30 percent of the money can be given away as a grant. New Jersey officials estimate that the massive storm did $US 2.6 billion in damages to the state’s water infrastructure. Roughly 41.6 billion liters (11 billion gallons) of raw or partially treated sewage flowed into waterways in the two states because of the storm, according to Climate Central, a climate research and media organization.

Carbon Capture Project
The Department of Energy has released a draft environmental review of a carbon-capture power plant being built in Illinois with $US 1 billion in federal money. The FutureGen 2.0 Project will trap at least 90 percent of the carbon dioxide from a new generating unit at an existing facility and inject the gas nearly a mile below ground. Public comments are being accepted through June 17 and can be emailed to cliff.whyte@netl.doe.gov.

Fracking Study Extension
The EPA is giving the public more time to submit information that the agency should consider in its study of how hydraulic fracturing affects drinking water resources. The deadline has been extended more than six months, to November 15.

Mississippi River Study
The National Academy of Sciences is taking a look at water quality in the Mississippi River Basin and will publish a report in winter 2014.

Federal Water Tap is a weekly digest spotting trends in U.S. government water policy. To get more water news, follow Circle of Blue on Twitter and sign up for our newsletter.

Brett Walton

Brett writes about agriculture, energy, infrastructure, and the politics and economics of water in the United States. He also writes the Federal Water Tap, Circle of Blue’s weekly digest of U.S. government water news. He is the winner of two Society of Environmental Journalists reporting awards, one of the top honors in American environmental journalism: first place for explanatory reporting for a series on septic system pollution in the United States(2016) and third place for beat reporting in a small market (2014). He received the Sierra Club’s Distinguished Service Award in 2018. Brett lives in Seattle, where he hikes the mountains and bakes pies. Contact Brett Walton