Grant awards keep watershed management on track

2009-2011 Watershed Planning Operating Budget Grants

The Department of Ecology is awarding $7 million to 29 watershed planning groups to help ensure locally adopted plans to manage water are put into action. The funding will be used for planning unit administrative support, the preparation of Detailed Implementation Plans and for various projects such as aquifer studies, reviewing current or drafting new instream flow rules, studying water demand and supply issues, and protecting water quality.

Two of these 29 watershed planning groups are currently in the plan development process. Given their priority in terms of statewide and regional water management goals and their past performance on grants, they will also be receiving grants to help them reach the plan approval and adoption stage.

These grants are primarily from the 2009-11 Operating Budget with some additional funding from the 2009-11 Capital Budget. Applications for operating grants were solicited in October of 2008 and were due at Ecology in early December, 2008. At the time of solicitation, 36 planning units representing 44 statewide water resource inventory areas were eligible for funding. A total of 66 grant applications for a total of $11 million dollars were submitted.

Before grant applications were reviewed for award decisions, watersheds funded through the Watershed Planning Act were categorized as high, medium and low priority basins. Watersheds placed in the high priority category would be first in line for available funding. If funding were to be available after meeting high priority basin needs, grants for medium or low priority basins could be considered. High priority basins are those that have:

High levels of existing population or expected population growth and development pressures that are expected to have adverse impacts on water resources.
High known or potential negative impacts to senior water right holders, municipal water supplies, instream flows, and other uses of local surface or groundwater resources would occur if water management activities are not funded.
Environmental degradation that can be avoided or minimized if watershed funding is provided for environmental restoration or enhancement activities. (E.g. TMDLs, ESA listed fish species, implementation of salmon recovery plans, fish habitat, etc.).
A high benefit to cost ratio of maintaining a local grants program and Ecology professional and technical staff resources in the basin.

The result was 21 high, 12 medium and two low priority watersheds. The details of which watersheds were categorized in these three priority groups is found in the link for funded grants and projects at the end of this text.

Once the level of the 2009-11 Operating Budget appropriation for watershed grant funding was known, the total amount was divided among Ecology’s four regional offices. This division depended on the number of watershed planning units in either the final plan adoption or the plan implementation phases of the Watershed Planning Act in each region. This resulted in the central, eastern and southwest regional offices each getting an allotment of 30% of available grant funding and the northwest regional office getting 10% of available funds.

With final, total regional grant allotments in hand, all grant applications were reviewed and ranked according to need and using the criteria posted in the grant application packet. Four Ecology regional water management teams used the following criteria to make their grant award recommendations to the Watershed Advancement Group, a body of senior and executive agency water, policy and financial managers. Favorable funding decisions and grant awards were made for grant applications that would:

Support or implement a legal agreement, a plan obligation, or a binding commitment made by Ecology or another state agency through a finished watershed planning process.
Be consistent with and clearly implement a Detailed Implementation Plan or an approved watershed plan.
Have high benefits to support stream flow improvements or instream flow rule development or implementation, or have high benefits for meeting water supply, water quality or fisheries management objectives.
Support, leverage or match other Ecology or other entity funded water management projects.
Be ready to start at the beginning of the biennium according to the proposed scope of work and task schedule.
Have a high likelihood to succeed. This includes high performance history on all aspects of grant management and completion of deliverables for prior year grant recipients.

In addition to the above grant review and award criteria, the 2009 final Operating Budget bill directed Ecology to focus its watershed grant resources on those watersheds ready to implement their adopted plans. This directive was factored into our grant award decision making.

2009-11 Watershed Plan Biennial Awards for Phases 1-4 Grant Activity and for Special Project Grants

The final list of 2009-11 biennial awards for Phases 1-4 grant activity and for special project grants is now available. Ecology watershed management staff have begun working with lead agencies on preliminary grant expenditure authorizations and final scopes of work for full scale grant funding and implementation.

2009-11 Operating Budget for Watershed Planning Unit Grants August 2009 - Final list of 2009-11 biennial awards for Phases 1-4 grant activity and for special project grants

Contact

Bill Zachmann
Department of Ecology - HQ
Phone: 360-407-6548
E-mail: bzac461@ecy.wa.gov