Earlier on Oct 30th, Governor Kathy Hochul announced a $12 million state grant for the City of Poughkeepsie to improve drinking water infrastructure by identifying and replacing lead service lines. The funding is part of $340 million in state and federal investments to replace lead service lines and deliver clean drinking water to New Yorkers. Governor Hochul is leveraging state funding with federal Bipartisan Infrastructure Law investments to ensure communities across the state receive the support they need to undertake water infrastructure projects that are vital to public health and residents’ quality of life. As highlighted by U.S. Representative Pat Ryan at Oct 30th’s announcement, Poughkeepsie is eligible for an additional $3.2 million Bipartisan Infrastructure Law grant to replace lead service lines and protect drinking water for residents.

VIDEO: The event is available to stream on YouTube here and TV quality video is available here (h.264, mp4).

AUDIO: The Governor’s remarks are available in audio form here.

PHOTOS: The Governor’s Flickr page has photos of the event here.

A rush transcript of the Governor’s remarks is available below:

?Good morning, Poughkeepsie.

[...]

Oh, this is a fun crowd — didn't know people got so excited about lead pipes, but apparently we do because you know how important this is, and I'm so grateful to be able to come back to this great, great city. Talking about something that — if you're not in local government or a citizen activist and environmentalist, you don't think about it every day, right? You assume that the pipes are fine, you're going to get clean water, the air should be clean. You certainly take a lot for granted, except you should not — you should not.

And, I know how important local governments are on the front line of protecting our citizens and ensuring they have clean drinking water. That the pipes that the water is coming through is not contaminated. And so, to come back to a City Hall like this, and to be able to work with local government officials, it takes me back to the world I came from. It was 30 years ago this year that I knocked on — for two years — 50,000 doors, and was able to persuade people in my town to elect a young woman with a couple of young kids in tow as their Councilmember.

So, I have worked my entire career steeled in the knowledge that the most powerful, important positions truly are at that local level when you hear from your neighbors, they come to your meetings. We had no time limits on our meetings, so we'd be there until one, two in the morning. So, everybody could say what they wanted because that was democracy in action, and, today — as a result of strong advocates and great elected leaders you have here who are so responsive — we're able to make some very, very positive news.

You know, talking about cleaning up our water lines and everything else we're doing, but it doesn't happen without people like your great Mayor. I want to thank the Mayor for all she has done to champion the money coming here. I know that when you're putting together your budget, and you're looking at increases that are necessary to cover the bonding for a long term water and infrastructure project, it's a big hit. Right, Mayor Flowers? And, you're thinking, “Gosh, if I could just get some help from the state and federal government to get this done, so I don't have to put it on the backs of my taxpayers.”

We heard you, Mayor Flowers. Thank you for being a great champion. Let's give our Mayor another round of applause here.

It certainly helps to have a strong voice for you in Albany, and that is your Assemblymember Jonathan Jacobson, who I've worked with for probably a decade now since I first became Lieutenant Governor. I want to thank him for his representation of this issue, how important this was. I know Sue Serino, our County Executive here.

Let's see, Sue here, okay. We also want to thank Maureen Coleman for joining us, the CEO of the Environmental Facilities Corporation, and I will be proud, so proud, to introduce — in a few minutes, you have to hear from me first — your Congressman. I call him the postman, because he always delivers. Thank you, Pat Ryan, for all you have done to ensure that this great district that you cherish and love so deeply gets what it deserves and we'll be talking about that in a couple of minutes.

So, let me tell you what we're up to here today. We're going to be talking about how important it is to make these investments in our communities, and today, we're announcing the City is receiving $12 million dollars for loan forgiveness from the State of New York to offset the cost of replacing your lead pipes throughout the City.

And this is just a small part of an unprecedented $90 million dollar investment that we announced last month to eliminate lead pipes across New York State once and for all. And, I want to say I'm so grateful to the Biden-Harris administration. What they're able to accomplish with the bipartisan — and I will say that twice because you don't hear it enough — the bipartisan infrastructure bill that is bringing dollars that are so essential to every corner of the State of New York in such a short time we're delivering already.

This investment in bipartisan infrastructure — the Infrastructure Investment Job Act — has allowed us to be able to be on the path and achieve President Biden's goal to have replaced every single lead pipe in America over the next decade. We can get that done starting right here in Poughkeepsie.

And they've not only committed the billions of dollars, they're committing it to underserved communities that have been harder hit and for too long ignored. As I mentioned, it's hard to put together a budget. It's hard to find the resources and to have this kind of help — to be able to have communities do the proper testing and modernization of their water system. It's a huge effort but the federal government can take us so far and then we need some help to get over the finish line, and that's why I'm combining state funds with the federal dollars where costs are not fully covered.

And again, working with Congressman Ryan and this community, we have pushed so hard to make sure this happens, to give them the tools they need to take this on, not just here in Poughkeepsie –– I know we're here in Poughkeepsie — but we're doing this in Troy, in Syracuse, in cities all across the state.

And you have to know where I come from to understand why I'm so passionate about this. Very few people in my position get excited about what happens underground. But my town, where I served for 14 years, all we focused on was making sure that our water lines and our sewer lines were well maintained and there were no breaks in the lines; there was no flooding, no disruptions — so, we obsessed about this more than anybody would ever understand. So, I bring that to the understanding that we can do so much more if we focus on this.

And, I grew up in an area, the town of Hamburg. When I was a little child, Lake Erie was our water source. You could see the pollution spewing into Lake Erie from the Bethlehem Steel Plant. It looked like molten lava every night being — it literally glowed in the dark.

Now, we swam in that water by day, no one told us how dangerous it was, and that was the water that went to a purified system and into our pipes. And that's what communities were drinking when I was growing up. Top it off, the air was so orange, I didn't know what a blue sky was. I assumed that the sky was supposed to be orange when I was a child, a little girl because the smokestacks were just billowing up pollution.

So, I cannot stand here and not tell you, I could not possibly not be a hardcore environmentalist. When you come out of that environment, and you see that assault on the environment that went on for decades and decades because people were just happy to have the job. This was the livelihood for so many of my neighbors and my own family members. Fast forward to 2024, we know the effects. We know how bad this is. But in fact, we've actually known for 200 years that lead pipes are poisonous. And as they corrode, the lead leaches into the water and into our bodies, and it can remain for weeks, if not years.

And what it does is it has a health effect. It can result in miscarriages for women. It can result in developmental challenges for young children: everything from learning disabilities to behavioral problems to learning loss to stunted growth. There are some studies that show that up to 20 percent of ADHD cases are due to lead exposure. But this is frustrating because over 100 years ago, in the 1920s, companies realized this was having an effect, and lead use started to decline. People understood that this was dangerous, there's other materials to replace with, but then, you get the powerful lead manufacturers who banded together, and instead of finding alternative solutions, they decided to deal with the problem that was biggest to them, which was their shrinking sales.

They lobbied to make the use of lead mandatory in all urban building codes, guaranteeing their existence forever, right? And it continued up until the 1980s. Think about how crass that was. They could have eradicated the use of lead pipes in our drinking water systems back in the 1920s when they knew there was a problem and they didn't.

On Oct 30th, finally, in 2024, we're saying it's going to be a vestige of the past. We'll no longer be using this and making sure that we clean up the ones that are still in existence. So communities across the nation are still affected by this. We are going to make sure that we fix this problem one last time, but I want to be clear. Our fight for clean water is not just about lead. I've also committed to $2.2 billion in financial assistance over the last year for other water infrastructure projects across the state — improving sewer systems, enhancing water testing capabilities and protecting our environment.

So, these are so important to me because I want to make sure that we can do things in a smart way. Yes, we want to incentivize manufacturing, but we can do it in a clean way that does not contaminate the environment because we want those jobs. We can also improve housing, make sure the pipes and the water coming into our new homes are so important. I want to thank this city for signing up to be a pro-housing community and supporting our efforts to say, “We know we have something great and special here, but why shouldn't our children be able to live here as well?” That's what I'm talking about, letting your kids and grandkids grow up in the same communities that you were raised in, and the reason we don't is because we didn't build enough housing. Thank you for your courage there.

We also have to keep our streets safe and invest in our natural resources and protect all families regardless of income or geography. What it comes down to is just focusing on not just today, but the future. We only wish that people 100 years ago had done the same, but I know because of our decisions here today, the resources we're bringing, the support from the federal government, and great partners like Pat Ryan and President Biden and the Harris administration — I want to thank them for having the vision to say that no, localities know this should be done, but it's too expensive.

I will be there on behalf of the people of the State of New York to say, this is a new day in New York. We will do better. We'll focus on not just today, but the future generations to come who will be grateful when they look back at this day, this moment in time and say, we finally turned the page. No more lead in our pipes. We're taking it out of the ground. I want to thank all of you who've been part of this great story. Congratulations.

This would not have happened without the strong advocacy of your Congressman Pat Ryan. He was there. He was there to make sure this legislation got through, but not just got through, but quickly got into the hands of the local governments, which is exactly what today's announcement is all about. So that's who you need in Washington. That's who I support. My great friend, Pat Ryan. Let's give a round of applause to our Congressman Pat Ryan.