Deadline: 10-Aug-21
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is soliciting applications from eligible applicants to provide support for training and related activities to build the capacity of agricultural partners, state, territorial and tribal officials and nongovernmental stakeholders in activities to be carried out to support the goals of the Clean Water Act (CWA) Program, the Nonpoint Source Program, the Wetlands Program, the CWA Program, and the Water Quality Monitoring Program.
Priority Areas
The following are the expected total of awards for each of the 11 Nationa Priority Areas:
- National Priority Area I: Non-point Source Agricultural Conservation Benefit Assessment and Partner Training – The goals are to improve water quality through agricultural conservation by:
- synthesizing the scientific and technical information to understand the water quality and co-benefits of conservation activities on agricultural lands;
- advancing efficient identification of critical source areas with emerging data tools;
- coordinating with state Nonpoint Source programs to demonstrate scale-up approaches to nutrient reduction such as through performance-based metrics of conservation, creative financing for shared agricultural conservation equipment, and other means;
- advance the understanding of the additional ecosystem and resiliency benefits resulting from conservation activities such as carbon sequestration, habitat restoration, and water storage and management; and
- fostering knowledge transfer regarding these benefits.
- National Priority Area II: Advance the State of Professional Training for Watershed Planners and Coordinators – The goal is to:
- conduct a study/research to understand and summarize the current state of watershed training curricula in the country;
- convene a workgroup of subject matter experts on watershed planning to evaluate the existing curricula and technical resources for watershed planning; and
- use the findings from the workshop and information gained through subsequent engagement with the workgroup to create a nationallyconsistent set of training curricula, which will serve as the foundational training elements for watershed planning and management.
- National Priority Area III: Training and Related Activities to Advance Integration of Clean Water Act programs with Natural Hazard Mitigation Planning and Implementation – The overall goals of the training and related activities for this National Priority Area are:
- to advance the development of water quality protection/restoration programs by enhancing the ability of governmental and non-governmental stakeholders to integrate natural hazard mitigation planning and water resources protection planning and projects;
- to foster communication and coordination between tribal, local and state water quality program managers with state, tribal and local natural hazard mitigation planners working under the authority of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Department of Homeland Security (FEMA), specifically State and Local Hazard Mitigation Plans; and
- to share lessons learned with a broader group of stakeholders by disseminating reports, fact sheets, training materials, web-based resources, papers or presentations featuring the integration of natural hazard mitigation planning and water resource protection programs;
- to provide materials for an online platform on plan integration training, outreach and dialogue.
- National Priority Area IV: State and Tribal Nonpoint Source Program Training Workshops – The goal is to conduct training workshops to ensure that nonpoint source program practitioners understand current issues and advancements in the national Nonpoint Source Program and to provide technical training on nonpoint source management practices.
- National Priority Area V: Wetland Program Training Workshops – The goal is to conduct training workshops to enhance the capabilities of states, tribes (federally recognized and non-federally recognized tribes), and others to develop and implement wetland protection and restoration programs.
- National Priority Area VI: Training Workshops on Fish Monitoring and Advisory Programs and Recreational Waters or Beach Monitoring Programs – The goal is to conduct training workshops to build the capacity of states and tribes to more effectively implement programs to protect human health from the effects of consuming contaminated fish caught in local waters and programs to protect human health from illnesses related to exposure in recreational waters or beaches.
- National Priority Area VII: Clean Water Act Tribal Wetland and Water Quality Assessment and Management Workshops – The goal is to conduct training workshops to enhance the capabilities of tribal monitoring and assessment programs to better implement Clean Water (Listing/Total Maximum Daily Loads (TMDLs)), (Status of Navigable Waters), (Nonpoint Source), Wetland, (Water Quality Certification) and (dredge and fill permitting).
- National Priority Area VIII: State and Tribal Aquatic Resource Monitoring Technical Training and Capacity Building Workshops – The goal is to conduct technical training and capacity building workshops and communication/outreach activities to more effectively assess water quality and communicate technical information at the national, regional, and state-scale focusing the technical training workshops on topics related to the National Aquatic Resource Surveys.
- National Priority Area IX: Clean Water Act Section 303(d) National Listing and TMDL Training Workshops – The goal is to conduct training workshops to enhance the capabilities of states, tribes, and territories to support the achievement of CWA listing and TMDL programmatic requirements.
- National Priority Area X: Training and Related Activities to Advance CWA Program Implementation – The overall goals for this National Priority Area are:
- to share the scientific, technical and programmatic issues or innovations to advance appropriate listing of impaired waters, and the development and/or implementation of TMDLs, alternative restoration plans, or protection plans to a diverse group of non-governmental stakeholders of the CWA Program together with state and federal CWA Program personnel; and
- to foster communication between non-governmental stakeholders, states, territories, tribes and federal CWA Program staff.
- National Priority Area XI: Cross-Program Training Workshops to advance effective and integrated implementation of CWA programs – The overall goal of the cross-program training workshops is to enhance the capabilities of states, tribes, and territories by fostering close coordination among the CWA Water Quality Standards program, the CWA Listing and TMDL program, and the CWA NPDES program, and by facilitating increased understanding of more effective and integrated approaches, as appropriate, to implementing these CWA programs.
Funding Information
- Estimated Total Program Funding: $7,300,000
- Award Ceiling: $990,000
Eligibility Criteria
- States, local governments, federally recognized Indian Tribes, intertribal consortia, interstate agencies, territories, possessions of the U.S. (including the District of Columbia), public and private universities and colleges, hospitals, laboratories and public or private non-profit institutions are eligible to apply. Individuals and for-profit entities are not eligible.
- While not considered to be a non-profit organization(s), Institutions of Higher Education and state, local and federally-recognized Indian tribal governments are, nevertheless, eligible to submit applications under this RFA.
- Non-profit organizations described in section 501(c)(4) of the Internal Revenue Code that engage in lobbying activities of the Lobbying Disclosure Act are not eligible to apply under this announcement.
- EPA may ask applicants to demonstrate that they are eligible for funding under this announcement.
For more information, visit https://www.grants.gov/web/grants/view-opportunity.html?oppId=334333