Grants & Other Funding Opportunities

Sub-pages: Award Announcements | All Grants Awarded | Other Funding Opportunities | NRCS Service Agreement

Spring 2010 Municipal Grant RFR Posted

As part of the Buzzards Bay NEP's work plan for the coming fiscal year, on April 8, 2010, the Buzzards Bay NEP posted a Request for Responses (RFR, a request for proposals) as part of our municipal grant program. The RFR is posted on the Commonwealth of Massachusetts' Comm-Pass.com system. A total of $282,500 of federal funds are available. Applications are due by 4:00 PM, Wednesday June 2, 2010. Copies of materials posted on the Comm-Pass page will also be posted here shortly for the convenience of municipalities.

Read the Spring 2010 cover letter to the municipalities on our current grant round.

The Buzzards Bay National Estuary Program provides grants an technical assistance to Buzzards bay municipalities in their efforts to protect and restore water quality and living resources in Buzzards Bay and its surrounding watershed. Our funding is made available through the Massachusetts Coastal Zone Management office and the Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs, and is posted on the state's procurement website Comm-Pass.com (search "Buzzards" after clicking the "search for a solicitations" link in the "SOLICITATIONS" tab).

For your convenience, we provide this link the rthe RFR (MS word document) Download the Spring 2010 RFR as Microsoft Word document (type your responses directly in the document)

pdf version of the RFR

Purpose of grant program according is as follows: "The Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs (EEA), through the Buzzards Bay National Estuary Program in the Massachusetts Office of Coastal Zone Management (CZM), announces that funding is available to assist eligible Buzzards Bay watershed municipalities in the protection of open space, rare and endangered species habitat, and freshwater and saltwater wetlands, to help restore tidally restricted salt marshes, to develop designs and remediate stormwater discharges threatening water quality, to provide support for mapping stormwater drainage networks, to construct pump-out facilities, to update town parcel data, to digitize wetland boundaries approved in permits, to assist in the monitoring of water quality to prioritize stormwater remediation, to address problems in migratory fish passage, and to implement other recommendations contained in the watershed management plan for Buzzards Bay. This work is being conducted in accordance with a Cooperative Agreement with the US EPA using federal funds."

Eligible Respondents to our Grant Programs

Unless otherwise specified in an RFR, eligible municipalities include Fall River, Westport, Dartmouth, New Bedford, Acushnet, Fairhaven, Rochester, Mattapoisett, Marion, Wareham, Middleborough, Carver, Plymouth, Bourne, Falmouth, and Gosnold. However, specific restoration and protection projects must lie principally within the Buzzards Bay watershed (see map below). For participation in the stormwater program, the discharge must be contributing to an existing impairment.

If you are considering an applying to the Buzzards Bay NEP for funding, please remember that we only fund projects in the Buzzards Bay watershed shown below.

Buzzards Bay watershed map

Click the map for an enlargement

Municipalities must submit separate application forms for each grant proposal. Municipalities may submit any number of applications in any grant category. However, no single project award can exceed $45,000, and no municipality may be awarded more than $75,000 through this solicitation. Municipalities may submit applications in partnership with other public or private organizations, or subcontract tasks, however, contracts will be awarded only to municipalities.

Application Information

To view our solicitation, and to download the forms, go to www.comm-pass.com. On the search for solicitations page type "Buzzards Bay Watershed" on the keyword line, and on the 4th line down select "open" in the document status pull down box, then click the "search" button. A results line will appear "1 documents match your search." Click on this. (Sorry there is no hard link, this is a dynamic link website.)

Below is a copy of the last RFR (opening in their own browser window) as a MS Word document. Applicants can type their responses and proposal information in the document. Applications may require additional Commonwealth forms (although most municipalities already have these on file with us), and these can be downloaded on the COMM-PASS website link above.

Download the Spring 2010 RFR as Microsoft Word document (type your responses directly in the document)

Eligible uses of funds

Below is an overview of projects eligible for funding according to the Spring 2009 RFR. Refer to the RFR for additional details.

1) Stormwater Remediation Designs
2) Implementation and construction of existing stormwater designs.
3) Stormwater Mapping Support
4) Wetland-Open Space-Habitat Restoration, Preservation, Acquisition or Protection Grants
5) Town Parcel GIS Data Acquisition or Update or digitizing of Wetland Boundaries from wetland permits
6) Migratory Fish Passage and Habitat Restoration
7) Water quality testing in support for establishing priorities for stormwater remediation
8) Construction of a boat pump-out facility in a municipality or harbor where none exists.
9) Creation of online reporting systems for the tracking the Operation, Maintenance, and
10) Other activities in support of the Buzzards Bay Management Plan.

Questions Received and Responses to the Spring 2010 Round (not yet posted)

Questions received (which may be paraphrased), and tentative answers to those questions. These tentative responses will not be finalized until the Question period ends.

Question 1: Are benthic surveys and mapping of harbors, undertaken to determine if certain areas meet DMF’s requirements for permitting aquaculture projects, eligible for funding?

Answer to Question 1: This type of project would be eligible for funding consideration under category 10 “Other Activities in Support of the Buzzards Bay Management Plan,” as it seems to match the goals of the Protecting and Enhancing Shellfish Resources Action Plan. However, applicants with proposals in this category should explicitly identify for the benefit of the reviewers, which Action Plans, goals, objectives, or recommendations of the Buzzards Bay Comprehensive Conservation and Management Plan they feel their proposal meets (see www.buzzardsbay.org/ccmptoc.htm).

Question 2: Is a project that involves the assessment, design, and removal of a culvert within the Bournedale Herring Run in Bourne, which acts as the sole passage for anadromous fish into Great Herring Pond, eligible for consideration? The culvert, in its existing condition is impeding fish passage and must be replaced; however, the culvert lies just outside the Buzzards Bay watershed boundary.

Answer to Question 2: The RFR summary paragraph states "Projects must implement a recommendation or recommendations in the Buzzards Bay Comprehensive Conservation and Management Plan and be principally located within the Buzzards Bay Watershed [emphasis added]." The map figure in the RFR states: "Projects must be located in the Buzzards Bay watershed as delineated by the purple shaded area above, although broader components of projects like outreach and education can be town-wide." In response to a similar question in a previous grant round we responded, "All projects must be located principally within the Buzzards Bay watershed. Projects that straddle the watershed boundary, enhance greenway linkages both inside and outside the Buzzards Bay watershed, or applications that include linked complimentary areas within and outside the watershed boundary may be considered."

Herring Pond is on the Buzzards Bay watershed groundwater divide, and a portion of the pond is within the Buzzards Bay watershed. Because the purpose of the proposed culvert improvement project is to restore upstream habitat for juvenile herring (and that pond is principally in the Buzzards Bay watershed) we have determined that projects that improve herring migration on the Herring River in Bourne are eligible for funding.

Question 3: Are surveys to correct boundary errors, install new property markers, alter conservation restriction (CR) boundaries to adjust for land swaps, or similar work on already protected lands eligible for funding?

Answer to Question 3: Yes, such projects are eligible for funding consideration. As stated in the RFR, grant funds may be used for "appraisals, site evaluations, or professional land surveys of any parcels where wetlands, wetland buffer zones, or endangered species habitats are a major feature. These evaluations are intended for parcels that are expected to be available for public land purchases, permanent conservation restrictions or easements, or purchase by land trust organizations."

2009 Municipal Grants Awarded

On September 3, 2009, Energy and Environmental Affairs (EEA) Secretary Ian Bowles today announced $167,000 in federal grants to help eight South Coast communities protect and restore Buzzards Bay. Administered by the EEA Office of Coastal Zone Management's (CZM) Buzzards Bay National Estuary Program, the grants help South Coast and Cape Cod communities to protect and restore water quality and natural resources in Buzzards Bay and its surrounding watershed. The towns will use these grants to protect and restore wetlands habitat and open space, design treatment solutions for stormwater discharges, and restore herring runs. Read the full EEA press release or read our 2009 grant award summary.

Recent Previous Awards

The following award announcements describe recent projects funded:

Fall 2008 municipal grant awards

Fall 2008 municipal grant awards

March 2008 municipal grant awards

Spring 2007 municipal grant awards

Fall 2006 minigrant awards.

Suggestions for applying for other grants

All BB NEP grants, and grants solicitations issued by other state agencies, are posted on the state's Comm-Pass system. If you check the Comm-Pass website regularly, you will be informed of grant opportunities from the Buzzards Bay NEP and other Commonwealth of Massachusetts agencies.

The Buzzards Bay NEP provides technical support to municipalities within our watershed, and may also provide technical support outside our watershed depending on staff availability and transferability of the project.

Is your town having trouble finding match for environmental grants? Match Buzzards Bay NEP or CZM CPR grants with funding from other sources, like Massachusetts Environmental Trust. CZM grants and MET funds are state funds and can be used to match federally funded grant programs like the Buzzards Bay NEP's or Massachusetts DEP's 319 NPS program.

Click on the link Other Funding Opportunities for funding opportunities in other agency programs.

Our program was established in 1985 after Congress designated Buzzards Bay an "estuary of national significance." We joined the NEP in 1987. Our mission is to protect and restore water quality and living resources in Buzzards Bay and its surrounding watershed through the implementation of the Buzzards Bay Comprehensive Conservation and Management Plan. Click to read more.

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