N.Y. AG announces Bronx River restoration grants

NEW YORK (Legal Newsline) - New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman announced Monday that more than $4 million would go to local Bronx and Westchester County entities to improve water quality in the Bronx River.

Schneiderman's Bronx River Watershed Initiative dedicated more than $2.1 million to help local water restoration efforts to control storm runoff and snow melt. With matching funds, the initiative is providing $4 million to ten local entities for green infrastructure projects to block the main causes of water quality issues in the Bronx River.

"I am proud to fight to protect every New Yorkers' right to clean air, pure drinking water, a stable environment and healthy communities," Schneiderman said. "From safeguarding Long Island's Pine Barrens, cleaning up the Hudson River, protecting the Adirondack wilderness and waterways in the Southern Tier and securing air quality in Western New York communities, we've made tremendous progress across New York improving our environment. While I am proud of our accomplishments, we will continue to press for much tougher protections, including fighting against climate change pollution and for a tightening of national air quality standards."

Since funding began in 2007, the Bronx River Watershed Initiative has brought close to $15 million to the Bronx River restoration effort.

In honor of Earth Day, Schneiderman highlighted multiple projects undertaken by his office to protect the environment throughout the state, including an agreement to reduce discharges of nitrogen by New York City-based municipal wastewater treatment plants into the Long Island Sound by close to 60 percent, successfully defending the state against a lawsuit that would have forced New York to withdraw from the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative and successfully defending restrictions the state added to a federal Environmental Protect Agency permit to address the discharge of biological pollution from commercial ships.