Federal water bill has $125M for Long Island communities

The U.S. House of Representatives approved a water infrastructure bill that would award $125 million to several projects on Long Island, including in Long Beach, Garden City and Freeport.

The bill would authorize $25 million to upgrade Long Beach’s water main, $11 million to remove lead pipes in Garden City and $3.3 million to install more pumping stations in Freeport to address tidal flooding.

The Water Resources Development Act of 2026 still requires Senate approval and must be signed by President Donald Trump before it becomes law. The actual funds would then need to be allocated by Congress. 

“The aim of this is to bring more tax dollars back to replace aging infrastructure,” Rep. Laura Gillen (D-Rockville Centre) said in an interview. The bill originated in the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, of which Gillen is a member.

Gillen said she secured the funding authorizations for the projects that will still need to go through the appropriations process after the bill is signed into law.

The $25 million for Long Beach is expected to cover a portion of the cost of replacing the city’s water mains.

"Most of the water transmission infrastructure under our streets is nearly 100 years old and needs to be systemically replaced," Ken Arnold, Long Beach commissioner of public works, said in a statement. "We estimate replacing all of this infrastructure will cost north of $100 million".

Last year, Garden City issued a warning that elevated levels of lead were found in its drinking water. The village has identified 1,190 lead service lines that require replacement as well as 70 galvanized service lines — steel pipes that may be, or have been, downstream from lead pipes that may contaminate water, according to village documents.

"The village has faced a significant issue in replacing the lead lines that lead from the village water main to our residents' homes and businesses," Garden City Mayor Edward Finneran said in an interview. "Over the last three or four years, we have made a very diligent effort to educate our neighbors on the importance of determining whether their lead line does contain lead, or whether it is lead-free." 

Finneran said the village's water main is lead-free, but some pipes leading into older homes have lead in them and residents are obligated to replace them. The federal funding would help offset homeowners' cost of replacing the pipes, Finneran said. 

“We cannot have lead pipes in our water infrastructure,” Gillen said. “It's so dangerous for humans and for pets as well.”

Freeport has been installing pumping stations for years to mitigate tidal flooding. The federal funding would help “make sure that they can build more pump stations to address the whole coastal perimeter of the village of Freeport,” Gillen said.

Earlier this year the village announced it was to receive $1.1 million in federal funding to build an underground pump station near Sea Breeze Park.  

The bill would also authorize $85.6 million for water and wastewater infrastructure in Nassau and Suffolk counties, including stormwater management, water reclamation and environmental restoration.