Ted Remsnyder is reporting for Columbia-Greene Media that the town of Cairo has qualified for $1.6 million in state-financed, interest-free loans for water infrastructure projects for the town’s completed well water project. Gov. Kathy Hochul on February 15, announced the Environmental Facilities Corporation Board of Directors had approved $41 million in funding that includes low-cost loans and previously awarded grants for municipalities, including the funds set aside for Cairo. The town qualified for more than $1.6 million in long-term, interest-free financing to develop additional groundwater source capacity, to improve the park well site and existing finished water storage tank, and more. Town Supervisor Jason Watts noted the funding was not a new source of revenue. “We already received that money and we just finally got the 2019 report done,” he said. Watts said the town now has a payment schedule in place to pay off the interest-free loan. In January 2019, the town awarded a water infrastructure bid to FP Kane Construction in Vestal, Broome County, and the firm was paid $2.9 million. In May of that year, Kane began work on the town’s water main, water tower and hydrants. In total, the price tag for the project was more than $3.7 million. Watts said since the money for the project has already been spent, he wasn’t sure how the town would fund potential repairs to the well, which he said is not working. “It was never put in properly,” the supervisor said. “Someone’s got to fix this. Someone’s got to explain to me why it’s not working. ..." The story does not mention the PFOS "forever chemical" found in the town's drinking water recently. The PFAS, or per- and polyfluroalkyl substances, form a group of contaminants, including PFOA and PFOS, that accumulate in the human body and cause cancer and thyroid problems. Firefighting foam was used for many years at a training center near Cairo's town water well in the Angelo Canna Park, and is blamed for the PFOS contamination. Read the full story at HudsonValley360 [dot] com.