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AGENCY TESTIMONY
Federal funding and agency partnerships
0:28:11
ยท
69 sec
Commissioner Aggarwala discusses DEP's reliance on federal funding and partnerships with federal agencies for various projects and operations.
- DEP uses federal grants for cloudburst infrastructure, lead service line replacements, and other discrete projects.
- The department has been awarded multiple BRIC grants for cloudburst projects.
- DEP relies on several federal agencies for critical operations:
- National Weather Service for detailed weather forecasts used in reservoir operations
- US Geological Survey for monitoring streams in the watershed and groundwater levels in the city
- US Army Corps of Engineers for coastal protection and Delaware River management
- The department is monitoring potential changes to these federal programs but has no significant updates to report.
Rohit Aggarwala
0:28:11
As we know, the new federal administration is making changes to federal programs.
0:28:15
We are less reliant on federal funding than many other agencies but we have been using federal grants to support cloud burst infrastructure, lead service line replacements and some other discrete projects.
0:28:26
We have been more awarded multiple BRIC grants to stretch our cloudburst program and are moving forward right now with the assumption that the funding will not change.
0:28:35
If it does however, we would expect several neighborhoods cloudburst projects to be delayed.
0:28:40
Beyond direct funding, we rely heavily on several federal agencies for our operations.
0:28:46
The National Weather Service provides detailed weather forecasts that we rely on for our reservoir operations.
0:28:52
If these are in any way curtailed, we will need to pay for private sector forecasts.
0:28:57
The US geological survey provides us services both in the watershed where they monitor streams that feed our reservoirs and in the city where we are working with them to measure groundwater levels.
0:29:06
Finally, the US army corps is a partner both within the city on coastal protection and in the watershed in the management of the Delaware River.
0:29:14
We are closely monitoring what might happen to these federal programs we rely on but have no news to report at this time.