by Olivia Young<\/p>\n
Five hundred thousand dollars in federal funding toward a long-awaited environmental study of the Harlem River is still in limbo after the Trump administration froze it last October, a move that targeted several Democratic states.<\/p>\n
For some Bronx-based advocates, the Harlem River Ecosystem Restoration Feasibility Study was a small step toward a decades-long vision to improve the quality of a river contaminated by raw sewage and bacteria, and ultimately to expand waterfront access for residents in some of the city\u2019s lowest-income neighborhoods.<\/p>\n
Chauncy Young, member of the Harlem River Coalition, said it is unclear if the funds will be released.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe administration is playing politics with money,\u201d Young said. \u201cThese decisions impact people\u2019s lives.\u201d<\/p>\n
One million dollars was secured last June after the city\u2019s department of environmental protection agreed to match the funds appropriated by Congress. This meant the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, lead on the study, could move forward with an investigation that looks for ways to restore natural habitats and prevent flooding.<\/p>\n
But, the project never started.<\/p>\n
During the 43-day government shutdown last year, Director of the U.S. Office of Management and Budget Russel Vought announced the corps would pause $11 billion for \u201clower-priority projects\u201d in New York, San Francisco, Boston and Baltimore, and consider cancelling them.<\/p>\n
Democrats had \u201cdrained the Army Corps of Engineers\u2019 ability to maintain billions of dollars in projects,\u201d according to Vought\u2019s post on X.<\/p>\n
Inside the frozen $11 billion is about $47.2 million for the Hudson Raritan Estuary Ecosystem Restoration Project, a major initiative that aims to restore and protect degraded wetlands in New York and New Jersey. Congress approved funding for eight sites \u2014 one being the Harlem River study \u2014 prompting elected officials to question if the pause was legally justified.<\/p>\n
In a Jan. 15 letter, Rep. Ritchie Torres and Rep. Adriano Espaillat urged Vought to address the status of the funding, adding the money was withheld because of a \u201cpolitical decision.\u201d They posed two questions: Will the funding be withheld indefinitely, and did the administration tell the corps to cancel the approved projects.<\/p>\n
The congressmen requested Vought answer by Feb. 17. They both told The Press if the deadline wasn\u2019t met, they would keep fighting. Torres said President Trump controls the funds, all they can do is \u201cexert pressure.\u201d<\/p>\n
By press time, there had been no response from Vought. The project remains on hold, with no public comment from the administration on if the money will be released.<\/p>\n
Once a system of winding shorelines and natural waterways, such as the Spuyten Duyvil Creek, the Harlem River was reshaped by more than 200 years of industrial and city expansion. Forests were lost, streams buried \u2014 including Tibbetts Brook, set to be daylighted by 2030 \u2014 and the river\u2019s water quality deteriorated.<\/p>\n
Despite the stall, Karen Argenti, member of the Bronx Council for Environmental Quality, is optimistic. She said she is looking forward to working with city and federal partners to improve the lives of Bronxites along the river.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think it\u2019s a setback,\u201d Argenti said. \u201cWe just have to wait a little bit longer.\u201d<\/p>\n
Neither the office of budget and management nor the corps were able to be reached for comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"by Olivia Young Five hundred thousand dollars in federal funding toward a long-awaited environmental study of the Harlem…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":139709,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[59018,128,59019,11307,9,24,63,2457,129,131,130],"class_list":{"0":"post-139708","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-the-bronx","8":"tag-army-corps","9":"tag-bronx","10":"tag-environmental-quality","11":"tag-harlem-river","12":"tag-new-york","13":"tag-new-york-city","14":"tag-nyc","15":"tag-ritchie-torres","16":"tag-the-bronx","17":"tag-the-bronx-headlines","18":"tag-the-bronx-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139708","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=139708"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139708\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/139709"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=139708"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=139708"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=139708"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}