Cooper Lake Dam Tour

The City of Kingston is completing construction on the rehabilitation of Cooper Lake Dam and West Dike—the city’s primary drinking water source. On October 5, representatives of the New York State Environmental Facilities Corporation (EFC) Board of Directors, EFC staff, New York State Department of Health, and the Ulster County Department of Health visited the site to see the progress of Schnabel’s dam rehabilitation project. The project was primarily financed through the Drinking Water State Revolving Loan Fund (DWSRF) supplemented by a Water Infrastructure Improvement Act (WIIA) grant and a Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) High Hazard Potential Dam (HHPD) grant. This is the first project in New York State to receive DWSRF funding for Dam/Reservoir Rehabilitation under the Environmental Protection Agency’s Class Exception issued June 21, 2021. Projects involving rehabilitation of dams and reservoirs were previously prohibited from using DWSRF funds for such work.