New York Laws
Title 12 - New York State Environmental Facilities Corporation
1285-T - Water Infrastructure Emergency Financial Assistance.

§ 1285-t. Water infrastructure emergency financial assistance. 1. For
purposes of this section, "municipality" means any county, city, town,
village, district corporation, county or town improvement district,
school district, Indian nation or tribe recognized by the state or the
United States with a reservation wholly or partly within the boundaries
of New York state, any public benefit corporation or public authority
established pursuant to the laws of New York or any agency of New York
state which is empowered to construct and operate a wastewater or
drinking water infrastructure project, or any two or more of the
foregoing which are acting jointly in connection with such a project.

2. Upon a municipality's formal declaration of an emergency, the
municipality shall provide the department of environmental conservation
or the department of health, as appropriate, with information to assess
any situation in which the state of the municipality's wastewater or
water infrastructure is causing or may cause an imminent hazard to the
public health or welfare, or the environment. After its assessment, if
either department determines the state of the infrastructure is
resulting or may result in imminent hazard to the public health or
welfare, or to the environment, the corporation shall provide temporary
emergency assistance, within amounts appropriated, to the municipality
in an amount not to exceed reasonable costs for infrastructure
construction, replacement, or repair, and related engineering costs,
that is immediately necessary to eliminate or substantially reduce such
hazard.

3. The corporation and the municipality shall enter into an agreement
signed by an officer duly authorized by the governing body of the
municipality pursuant to which the corporation shall transmit emergency
financial assistance in an amount determined by the department of
environmental conservation or the department of health, as applicable,
as necessary to address the imminent hazard, and shall provide the
assistance payment to the municipality within two business days of
receipt of such determination. The municipality shall submit an itemized
cost estimate from the municipality's engineer or engineering consultant
to the applicable department sufficient to make such determination.

4. No later than fourteen days after the cessation of the emergency,
the municipality shall provide to the corporation documentation for all
costs paid with the emergency assistance and refund to the corporation
any portion of the financial assistance not used or committed to pay for
the construction, replacement, or repair and related engineering costs
determined to be necessary under subdivision one of this section.

5. Subject to appropriation or duly authorized indebtedness, the
municipality shall repay the corporation within one year of its receipt
of emergency financial assistance the full amount of such assistance
provided to it under this section. The corporation may extend the time
to repay for up to one additional year if the corporation determines in
its sole discretion that such an extension is warranted under the
circumstances.

6. Nothing in this section nullifies the eligibility of a municipality
for other infrastructure funding, including grant, which may be provided
by the state for water infrastructure directly related to the
infrastructure for which emergency financial assistance is awarded under
this section, including funding the municipality could use to repay the
emergency financial assistance. If the municipality receives such other
funding from the state or any financial assistance from a third party
for the same infrastructure, the municipality shall within ten days
first repay the corporation the outstanding balance of the emergency
financial assistance before paying any remaining costs for the water
infrastructure.