Deadline: 11-Dec-2024
The Environmental Protection Agency has launched the funding opportunity for Indian Tribes and Intertribal Consortia for Nonpoint Source Management Grants Under Clean Water Act.
The funding available through this NOFO will support Tribal projects primarily focused on implementing on the-ground best management practices (BMPs) that will help protect or restore waters from sources of NPS pollution.
Objectives
- This Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) is issued pursuant to Clean Water Act (CWA) Section 319(h), which authorizes the EPA to award grants to eligible Tribes and intertribal consortia to implement approved Nonpoint Source (NPS) management programs developed pursuant to CWA Section 319(b)(1) “for controlling pollution added from nonpoint sources to the navigable waters” and “improving the quality of such waters.”
- NPS management programs must identify “best management practices and measures which will be undertaken to reduce pollutant loadings resulting from each category, subcategory, or particular nonpoint source” identified in the Tribe’s NPS assessment report developed pursuant to CWA Section 319(a).
Funding Information
- Eligible Tribes and intertribal consortia may submit an application for up to a maximum amount of $125,000
Outcomes
- 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.
- Outcomes may be environmental, behavioral, health-related or programmatic in nature, 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 environmental outcomes anticipated as a result of the assistance agreements to be awarded under this NOFO may include but are not limited to:
- An increased number of NPS-impaired waterbodies that have been partially or fully restored to meet water quality standards or other water quality-based goals established by the Tribes;
- An increased number of waterbodies that have been protected from NPS pollution;
- Increased abundance and diversity of fish or macroinvertebrate species;
- Increased NPS knowledge of community members.
Eligible Projects
- Examples of NPS BMPs and other project activities eligible to be funded under this NOFO include, but are not limited to the following:
- Examples of eligible NPS BMP implementation:
- Road stabilization/removal;
- Riparian planting;
- Streambank stabilization;
- Natural channel restoration;
- Low impact development/storm water management practices;
- Livestock exclusion fencing;
- Septic system rehabilitation; and
- Nutrient or grazing management practices.
Eligibility Criteria
- Eligible Applicants
- To be eligible for a CWA Section 319 grant under this NOFO, a Tribe or intertribal consortium must:
- be federally recognized,
- have an EPA-approved NPS assessment report in accordance with CWA Section 319 (a),
- have an EPA-approved NPS management program in accordance with CWA Section 319(b) and
- have “Treatment-in-a-manner-similar-to-a-State” (TAS) status in accordance with CWA Section 518(e).
- An intertribal consortium is a partnership between two or more Tribes that is authorized by the governing bodies of those Tribes to apply for and receive assistance under this program
For more information, visit Grants.gov.