Columbia River Basin Water Management Grant Program

In 2006, the Legislature established the Columbia River Water Supply Development Account (Account) to fund water storage and conservation projects and studies. Initially, as a grant program was being developed, Ecology provided continuing funding for projects that had started prior to the Columbia River legislation (such as studies evaluating off-channel storage on the Columbia River Mainstem, studies to supply the Odessa Subarea with surface water). Ecology also committed funding to emerging storage and conservation opportunities, such as a pilot aquifer storage project for the City of Kennewick, pre-appraisal of storage on the Similkameen River (Shanker's Bend) and a study evaluating opportunities for coordinated conservation among the three Columbia Basin Irrigation Districts.

In October 2007, Ecology began accepting pre-applications for its first annual Columbia River Basin Water Management Grant Program. Successful applicants will be awarded grants funded by the Account.

The grants will fund a variety of conservation and storage projects, including:

Conservation infrastructure (“pumps and pipes”)
Surface Storage
Aquifer Storage
Pump Exchange Projects
Feasibility Studies
Operations and Maintenance (annually funded)

All projects, large and small, will be given consideration.

Application Process

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

The Department of Ecology is now evaluating the pre-applications to ensure they meet 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 will be invited to submit an application in March 2008.

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

Once the projects are evaluated and scored, Ecology will submit 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. Pre-applications for the 2008 funding cycle will be accepted next fall for 2010 funding.

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)

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.