Deadline: 15-Nov-21
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is soliciting applications from eligible applicants for the National Estuary Program (NEP) Watersheds Grant to support projects that address urgent, emerging, and challenging issues that threaten the ecological and economic well-being of estuarine areas.
- implement Priority Actions identified in one of the 28 EPA-approved NEP;
- demonstrate on-the-ground or tangible quantifiable improvements to conditions of estuarine waters and the health of habitats and living resources completely within the geographic areas;
- provide results of monitoring and assessment that generate new understanding of systems under stress in these geographic areas;
- achieve advances in new approaches, practices, methods, or techniques for preventing and addressing threats to estuaries, especially adapting and bolstering resilience to the impacts of climate change in the geographic areas;
- demonstrate the establishment or improvement of sustainable local capacity particularly in underrepresented communities to prevent and address urgent, emerging, and challenging issues that affect the geographic areas; and
- demonstrate partnerships and include diverse representation on project teams that address urgent, emerging, and challenging environmental issues within the geographic areas.
- The total federal amount of funding expected to be available under this announcement is approximately $18,000,000 depending on Agency funding levels, the quality of applications received, and other applicable considerations.
- The successful applicant should provide EPA with a negotiated, six-year work plan covering six distinct one-year periods of performance.
- the number of projects that address urgent, emerging, and challenging issues that threaten ecological and economic well-being in geographic areas;
- the number of projects that remove or modify physical barriers that would prevent natural transition of salt marsh habitat;
- the development and verification of subawardee tracking (reporting) systems that include the ability to monitor progress and to upload reports;
- the number of new partnerships formed or existing partnerships strengthened that contribute to the ecological and economic well-being of the estuarine areas as defined by this RFA;
- the number of pounds of nitrogen or sediment discharge avoided;
- the number of acres, linear miles or feet of habitat created, re-established, rehabilitated, or enhanced funded through subaward projects;
- the number pounds of floatable debris reduced or prevented from entering the estuary;
- pollutant (e.g., nutrients and sediment) load reductions in estuarine waters as defined by this RFA; and
- the number of lessons learned captured from the subaward projects.
Environmental outcomes are the result, effect, or consequence that will occur from carrying out an environmental program or activity that is related to an environmental or programmatic goal or objective, and are used as a way to gauge a project’s performance and take the form of output and outcome measures. Outcomes may be environmental, behavioral, health-related or programmatic in nature. Outcomes must be quantitative and may not necessarily be achieved within an assistance agreement funding period. Outcomes may be short term (changes in learning, knowledge, attitude, skills), intermediate (changes in behavior, practice, or decisions), or long-term (changes in condition of the natural resource). Examples of anticipated environmental outcomes from the cooperative agreement to be awarded under this announcement may include, but are not limited to, the following within the defined estuarine areas:
- a change made to regulations, codes, and/or ordinances to promote estuarine watershed-based protection and restoration;
- an increased capacity among state and local governments and underserved communities to address urgent, emerging, and challenging estuarine issues;
- an improvement in the function of estuarine, near-shore, wetland, and upland habitat communities;
- an increase in the quality of habitat that was impaired by non-native invasive species;
- an implementation of innovative watershed-based nutrient reduction strategies;
- the creation of a pathway or improvement of a pathway for coastal wetlands for landward migration in response to sea level rise; and
- a change in behavior of community members that results in improved conditions in estuarine waters or bolsters resilience to climate change.
- Eligible applicants under this announcement are state, interstate, tribal, inter-tribal consortia, and regional water pollution control agencies and entities, state coastal zone management agencies, other public or nonprofit private agencies, institutions, and organizations, who can select, award, and manage subaward projects within the defined geographic boundaries of the NEP Watershed Program.
- Non-profit organizations described in section 501(c)(4) of the Internal Revenue Code that engage in lobbying activities of the Lobbying Disclosure Act of 1995 are not eligible to apply under this announcement.
- Nonprofit organizations may be asked to provide documentation that they meet the definition of a nonprofit organization. Interstate agencies may be asked to provide a citation to the statutory authority, which establishes their status.
- Eligible entities for the competitive subawards issued by the successful applicant include state, interstate, tribal, inter-tribal consortia and regional water pollution control agencies and entities, state coastal zone management agencies, interstate agencies, other public or nonprofit private agencies and institutions.
For more information, visit https://www.grants.gov/web/grants/view-opportunity.html?oppId=335895
