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State Spending $1 Million On Lower East Side Flood Protection Project

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- The Lower East Side, flooded by Superstorm Sandy, will receive $1 million from the state to help prevent similar flooding in the future.

As part of the project, wetlands, which will act as a sponge to absorb storm water, will be built at East River Park, WCBS 880's Peter Haskell reported.

"The force of that flooding will be slowed down somewhat," said Christine Datz-Romero, executive director of the Lower East Side Ecology Center.

State Spending $1 Million On Lower East Side Flood Protection Project

"Trenches will have to be built and then a gravel bed will be laid down, and then it will be filled with some soil and then it will be vegetated with native plants," she explained.

The project could serve as a pilot for future flood prevention programs.

Datz-Romero said she hopes work will begin by the end of next year.

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