Ogdensburg and Potsdam may seek a portion of the $75 million in grants to improve wastewater treatment facilities announced March 3 by the state Environmental Facilities Corporation.

In Ogdensburg, councilors are looking to fund more than $10 million in improvements to the city’s wastewater treatment plant.

The Village of Potsdam is in a similar position with approximately $10 million in improvements needed at its wastewater facility.

The state’s Environmental Facilities Corporation announced the availability of $75 million in water infrastructure grants has been expedited to ensure that grant funds are available as soon as possible to local governments needing assistance to advance their water and wastewater infrastructure projects.

Applications for NYS Water Grants Program will be released on Feb. 3.

New York State Senate Environmental Conservation Committee Chair Thomas O’Mara said: "It’s great news that the state is taking steps to distribute this vital funding to help localities statewide undertake these critical water infrastructure and quality projects as quickly as possible. I'm grateful to my legislative colleagues, particularly Senator Patty Ritchie of the North Country, for pushing for this expedited application process, and we're appreciative of the governor's cooperation and support."

As with the last round, projects given priority will include those that meet economic hardship criteria and projects that result in the greatest water quality improvement or greatest reduction in serious risk to public health, mitigate combined sewer and storm sewer overflows, or increase system resiliency to protect wastewater collection and treatment systems from sea level rise and damage from extreme weather.

Applicants seeking grant funding for wastewater projects are eligible to receive grants of either 25 percent of eligible project costs or $5 million, whichever is less.

Drinking water projects that provide the greatest reduction in risk to public health will also be eligible for grants. Preference will be given to hardship communities.

Applicants seeking grant funding for drinking water projects are eligible to receive grants of either 60 percent of eligible project costs or $2 million, whichever is less.

Applications for both wastewater and drinking water projects were made available on February 3 at www.efc.ny.gov/NYSwatergrants. The application deadline is April 15. Municipalities with questions should e-mail NYSwatergrants@efc.ny.gov or call EFC at 518-402-6924.