The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is seeking insightful, expert, and cost-effective applications from eligible applicants to provide the Chesapeake Bay Program’s non-federal partners with technical analysis and programmatic evaluation support related to water quality modeling and monitoring and spatial systems to manage, analyze, and map environmental data.
Donor Name: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
State: Delaware, Maryland, New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, West Virginia and District of Columbia
County: All Counties
Type of Grant: Grant
Deadline: 10/30/2023
Size of the Grant: $1,032,000
Grant Duration: 6 years
Details:
The project assists the partners in meeting their restoration and protection goals and in increasing the transfer of scientific understanding to the Chesapeake Bay Program modeling, monitoring, and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) activities. The recipient will support modeling, monitoring, and GIS programs needed to explain and communicate the health of and changes in the Chesapeake Bay ecosystem.
The CBP is a unique regional partnership that has led and directed the restoration of the Chesapeake Bay since 1983. Today, the CBP partners include the states of Delaware, Maryland, New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and West Virginia; the District of Columbia; the Chesapeake Bay Commission (a tri-state legislative body); EPA, representing the federal government The partnership’s work is guided by the Chesapeake Bay Watershed Agreement, which establishes the plan for collaboration across the Bay’s political boundaries and establishes goals and outcomes for the restoration of the Bay, its tributaries, and the lands that surround them.
Project funding will support scientific staff members who will apply various modeling, data analyses, and GIS activities to develop and communicate information used in decision making. The project includes six activities for the Chesapeake Bay Program:
- Nonpoint Source Data Analysis,
- Watershed Modeling,
- Tidal Monitoring Data Analysis,
- Nontidal Monitoring Data Analysis,
- Geographic Information Systems Analysis, and
- Model Operations Support.
The work will primarily support the CBP partnership’s STAR Team, the Water Quality Goal Implementation Team (WQGIT) and their workgroups made up of state, regional, local, and non-public stakeholders, building the institutional and programmatic capacity for accelerated implementation of the most cost-effective targeted BMPs and other nutrient and sediment reduction actions for the protection and restoration of the Chesapeake Bay and its watershed.
While the CBP partnership is comprised of federal and non-federal organizations, any activities funded under this RFA will not directly benefit the federal partners. The recipient of the cooperative agreement awarded under this RFA may work directly with federal agencies, but the nature of that work will result only in direct, significant benefits to the non-federal agencies, partners, and the general public. Any indirect and incidental benefits to EPA are not the purpose of the RFA. The nonfederal partners of the CBP will provide programmatic direction to the successful applicant through the WQGIT, STAR, and other GITs.
Funding Information
EPA plans to award one six-year cooperative agreement under this RFA. The total estimated funding under this solicitation is approximately $5,280,000 overall, with an estimated $880,000 available for the first year and each year thereafter.
- Activity 1: CBP Agricultural Watershed Fertilizer Manure Data Scientist Estimated Available Funding: $900,000 ($150,000 per year for six years)
- Activity 2: CBP Watershed Modeler Estimated Available Funding: $870,000 ($145,000 per year for six years)
- Activity 3: CBP Tidal Monitoring Data Analyst Estimated Available Funding: $660,000 ($110,000 per year for six years)
- Activity 4: CBP Nontidal Monitoring Data Analyst Estimated Available Funding: $870,000 ($145,000 per year for six years)
- Activity 5: CBP Geographic Information Systems Analyst Estimated Available Funding: $948,000 ($158,000 per year for six years)
- Activity 6: CBP Model Operations Scientist Estimated Available Funding: $1,032,000 ($172,000 per year for six years)
Project Period
The expected project period for the cooperative agreement is six years, with funding provided on an annual basis.
Eligibility Criteria
- Consistent with Assistance, competition under this solicitation is available for technical and general assistance grants to nonprofit organizations, State, tribal (federally recognized) and local governments, colleges, universities, and interstate agencies. For-profit organizations are not eligible to submit applications in response to this RFA.
- Consistent with the definition of “nonprofit organization” at the term nonprofit organization means any corporation, trust, association, cooperative, or other organization that is operated mainly for scientific, educational, service, charitable, or similar purpose in the public interest and is not organized primarily for profit; and uses net proceeds to maintain, improve, or expand the operation of the organization. The term includes tax-exempt nonprofit neighborhood and labor organizations.
- Nonprofit organizations that are not exempt from taxation under section 501 of the Internal Revenue Code must submit other forms of documentation of nonprofit status; such as certificates of incorporation as nonprofit under state or tribal law. Nonprofit organizations exempt from taxation under section 501(c)(4) of the Internal Revenue Code that lobby are not eligible for EPA funding as provided in the Lobbying Disclosure Act.
For more information, visit Grants.gov.
