Deadline: 27-Jan-22
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is soliciting applications pursuant to Section 319 of the Clean Water Act (CWA) from eligible tribes and intertribal consortia to develop and/or implement watershed-based plans and complete watershed projects that will result in significant steps towards solving nonpoint source (NPS) water quality impairments or threats on a watershed-wide basis.
Eligible entities are strongly encouraged to submit applications that develop and/or implement watershed-based plans designed to restore NPSimpaired waters and protect waters from NPS pollution.
Objectives
- This Request for Applications (RFA) is issued pursuant to Section 319(h) of the Clean Water Act (CWA), which authorizes EPA to award grants to eligible tribes and intertribal consortia to implement approved NPS management programs developed pursuant to 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 Section 319(a).
- After allocating Section 319 tribal funds for tribal base grant work plans, EPA allocates the remaining Section 319 tribal funds to eligible entities according to the competitive procedures in this RFA.
- This competitive funding will support tribal efforts to develop and/or implement watershed-based plans and complete watershed projects that will result in significant steps towards addressing NPS water quality impairments or threats on a watershed-wide basis.
Types of Projects
Project Types Solicited Under This Announcement: All applications must address one of the following four project types. Please note the narrow definition of a “nine element watershed-based plan” specific to EPA’s NPS Program.
- Project Type i: The work plan develops or continues work on a nine element watershed-based plan and implements a nine element watershed-based plan
- Project Type ii: The work plan develops or continues work on a nine element watershed-based plan and complete a watershed project (that does not implement the watershed-based plan) that is a significant step towards addressing NPS water quality impairments or threats on a watershedwide basis.
- Project Type iii: The work plan implements a nine element watershed-based plan.
- Project Type iv: The work plan complete a watershed project that is a significant step towards addressing NPS water quality impairments or threats on a watershed-wide basis.
Funding Information
- The total amount of federal funding expected to be available under this announcement is approximately $2.7 million, depending on Agency funding levels, the number of tribes requesting Section 319 base funding for FY 2021, the evaluation of applications, and other applicable considerations.
- A federal funding amount of $2.7 million would equate to approximately 27 competitively funded grants.
- In FY 2021, EPA awarded approximately $3 million to 32 tribes for specific watershed projects through a competitive process.
- Eligible tribes and intertribal consortia may submit an application for up to a maximum of $100,000 of federal Section 319 funding (plus the additional required non-federal cost share/match of the total project cost).
Eligible Implementation
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.
Eligible Project Activities
Examples of other eligible project activities:
- NPS ordinance development;
- Project monitoring (e.g., baseline monitoring and post-BMP implementation monitoring);
- Development of a watershed-based plan;
- Training which assists the applicant in developing NPS implementation projects;
- Staff time and materials towards implementing projects; and
- NPS education and outreach relevant to successful implementation of NPS projects.
Eligibility Criteria
- To be eligible for a CWA Section 319 grant under this RFA, 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).
- To be eligible for CWA Section 319 grants under this RFA, tribes or intertribal consortium must have met these eligibility requirements as of October 8, 2021. For a complete list of tribes eligible for Section 319 FY 2022 funding, refer to the List of Tribes Eligible for 319 Base and Competitive Funding for FY 2022.
- Some tribes have formed intertribal consortia to promote cooperative work. 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.
- Individual tribes who are part of an intertribal consortium that submits an application for a Section 319 competitive grant may not also submit an individual Section 319 competitive application. In such cases the individual application will be considered ineligible.
- The intertribal consortium is eligible only if the consortium demonstrates that all of its members have met the eligibility, and member tribes authorize the consortium to apply for and receive assistance in accordance with 40 CFR Part 35.504 at the time of application submission.
- An intertribal consortium must submit with its application adequate documentation of the existence of the partnership and the authorization of the consortium by its members to apply for and receive the grant.
For more information, visit https://www.grants.gov/web/grants/view-opportunity.html?oppId=336764