Great Neck Water Pollution Control District officials said the $500,000 grant they received from the state for plant upgrades would further the savings taxpayers saw this year from other cost-saving initiatives.
“These grants were applied for and garnered after by the district,” district Superintendent Christopher Murphy said. “So we made it clear we were going to get any grant money we could find for these projects to lessen the amount of money we spend which is a direct savings for the taxpayers.”
The anaerobic digester, which will be upgraded with the grant money, is a process at the district’s facility that is used to breakdown solids and create methane gas used for heat and to power the facility, Murphy said.
On Sept. 10, the district announced that taxpayers saved more than $108,000 from microturbine plant improvements that reduced heating and electrical costs between January 2015 and June 2015.
District Commissioner Steve Reiter said the digesters at the facility were “well beyond their lifespan” and the district needed the upgrade.
He added that the grant would cover the full cost of the upgrade, with no expense to the district.
The Empire State Development grant was awarded by the state’s Economic Development Council, an organization that seeks to promote the economic development of the state and its communities, according to its website.
Murphy said the digester upgrades would create construction jobs, something the EDC was looking for when awarding grants.
Reiter added jobs would not be created at the facility itself but for outside workers such as the contractors redoing the digesters.
Engineering and design work has already begun, Murphy said, and the district projects the upgrades to be completed some time in 2018, though that projection could change depending on how quickly work can be completed.
The Great Neck Water Pollution Control District is located at 236 East Shore Road and serves the villages of Great Neck, Great Neck Plaza, Kensington, Thomaston and Saddle Rock as well as parts of Manhasset.
