State DEC awards climate change grants to three LI municipalities

The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation has awarded $740,000 in grants to three Long Island municipalities to assist in addressing climate change.

The grants awarded to the Town of Brookhaven, the Town of East Hampton and the Village of Garden City were part of $22.7 million in Climate Smart Communities Grant awards for 43 projects to help municipalities take action to address climate change. This year’s funded projects reduce flood risk by retrofitting or relocating critical infrastructure, support decreasing transportation emissions through cycling and walkability projects, reduce emissions from food waste and landfills, and undertake engineering feasibility studies to advance future climate projects, among many other actions, according to a DEC statement.

On Long Island, Brookhaven was awarded $500,000 to acquire a parcel of land in East Patchogue for open space preservation and flood risk reduction. 

A grant of $200,000 was awarded to East Hampton to develop a natural resource inventory that will be a centralized data repository for the development of conservation and land management strategies and serve as a foundation for good land use planning.

Garden City will get $40,000 for “government operations greenhouse gas emissions inventory, fleet inventory, and fleet efficiency policy.” The assessments will identify emission sources and establish procurement standards, enabling the village to prioritize cost-effective reduction strategies.

As part of the CSC Grant Program, municipalities are required to provide a local match of 50 percent of the total costs for most projects. Last year’s New York State budget made grants more accessible to more communities by authorizing DEC to provide up to 80 percent of the cost for municipal projects that meet criteria for financial hardship and for projects located in disadvantaged communities.