Columbia River Basin Water Management Grant Program

Application Process

Pre-applications were accepted from October 1 though November 30, 2007.

The Department of Ecology evaluated the pre-applications to ensure they met eligibility criteria including:

• A valid water right must exist if construction funding is requested (a water right is not required for feasibility studies).
• The water right must be “trustable” for conservation projects.
• The project must be consistent with adopted watershed plans.
• Storage projects made possible with funds from the Columbia River Account must be managed 2/3 for out-of-stream and 1/3 for instream in proportion to Columbia River funding.

Successful pre-applicants were invited to submit an application in March 2008.

Proposed conservation, small storage, aquifer storage, and operation and maintenance projects were subjected to technical analysis and scoring by the Technical Advisory Group (TAG), a committee composed of water resource experts from state, tribal, and local government, conservation districts, and the Salmon Recovery Board (TAG Charter).  Other projects were evaluated internally by Ecology.

Once evaluated and scored, Ecology submitted a list of recommended projects for discussion by the Policy Advisory Group, a committee composed of representatives from federal, state, tribal, and local government and agricultural, business, and environmental stakeholder groups.  Selected projects will then be submitted to the Governor and the Legislature for funding. Grants for the 2007 funding cycle will be awarded in July 2009.

2008 Grants Awarded

• Ecology Funding List  (Summary of Costs & Benefits) 
• Budget Piechart
• Funding List Map  

Additional Information

• Grant funding presentation
• Grant funding timeline
• List of submitted pre-applications
   
• Pre-Application Form PDF version (Word version see instructions below)
• Application Form PDF version (Word version see instructions below)

Downloading Application Instructions: Click on "Word Version": when prompted, choose "save" instead of  "open" to save the file to a location of your choice, then open Word and browse for the saved file. (This prevents the Application from opening in your internet browser and allows the editing capabilities of Word.)

Contact

Alvin Josephy
Dept of Ecology Water Resources Program
PO Box 47600
Olympia, WA 98504-7600
(360) 407-6456
ajos461@ecy.wa.gov

Or your local Washington State conservation district.