The Urban Community Drought Relief Program is one of three Department of Water Resources’ (DWR’s) Drought Relief Grant Programs that offers financial assistance to address drought impacts.
Donor Name: California Department of Water Resources
State: California
County: All Counties
Type of Grant: Grant
Deadline: 01/31/2023
Size of the Grant: $200 million
Details:
Funding Information
Funding for the Program was authorized by the Legislature amending the Budget Act of 2021; DWR was allocated $200 million for Urban Communities, $75 million for Conservation for Urban Suppliers, and $75 million for Turf Replacement. The same Budget Act also authorized $100 million for the Small Community Drought Relief Program.
Eligibility Criteria
- Eligible Applicants
- The grant applicant is the entity submitting the grant application; this entity will also be the primary entity to enter into the grant agreement with DWR. Entities that are eligible to apply\ under this GL/PSP (or included as a Local Project Sponsor (LPS) in the application) are listed below:
- Public agencies
- Public utilities
- Special districts
- Colleges and universities
- Mutual water companies
- Non-profit organizations
- Regional water management groups, as defined in Water Code section 10539
- Federally recognized California Native American Tribes
- Non-federally recognized Native American Tribes on the contact list maintained by the Native American Heritage Commission for the purposes of Chapter 905 of the Statutes of 2004
- The grant applicant is the entity submitting the grant application; this entity will also be the primary entity to enter into the grant agreement with DWR. Entities that are eligible to apply\ under this GL/PSP (or included as a Local Project Sponsor (LPS) in the application) are listed below:
Eligible Project Types
- For the purposes of this GL/PSP, “project” means all planning, design, engineering, acquisition of real property interests, construction and related activities undertaken to implement a discrete action to be funded under this Program. Eligible project types include:
- Projects that support immediate drought response
- Projects that enhance local supply and climate resilience through source watershed improvements, consistent with Water Code section 108.5, that defines source watersheds as infrastructure
- Drought resilience planning
- Water conservation activities, including but not limited to; education, outreach, direct installation programs, fixture replacement incentives and rebate programs, and other activities that provide reductions in water consumption or improvements to water supply reliability
- Turf replacement with drought tolerant landscaping: i.e., replacing turf (traditional grass lawns) with native and drought tolerant plants and/or climate appropriate turf species for functional turf2
- Hauled water
- Installation of temporary or permanent community water tanks
- Bottled water
- Water vending machines
- Emergency water interties
- New wells or rehabilitation of existing wells
- Construction or installation of permanent connection to adjacent water systems, recycled water projects that provide immediate relief to potable water supplies, and other projects that support immediate drought response
- Fish and wildlife rescue, protection, and relocation.
For more information, visit CDWR.
