2008 Fall Municipal Grants

Fall 2008 Municipal Grants Awards

Related pages: All Grants Awarded  |  Other Funding Opportunities |

Background and summary

In the fall of 2008, as part of our federal grant, the Buzzards Bay NEP requested proposals from Buzzards Bay municipalities for projects to protect and restore water quality and living resources in Buzzards Bay and its surrounding watershed. Through the Massachusetts Coastal Zone Management office and the Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs, the BBNEP announced the award of $131,000 in grants to seven Buzzards Bay watershed municipalities. Read this EEA municipal grant press release to learn more.

A summary of the awards are as follows:

  • City of New Bedford $15,000 for planning on how to treat stormwater discharges near public piers and wharves in the city’s port. The city seeks to reduce stormwater pollutants in its harbor as part of its “ green port” initiative. City officials will use the funds to evaluate seven candidate treatment sites, and develop stormwater treatment designs for the top candidates.
  • Town of Wareham $35,000 to redesign and repair a fish ladder on Gibbs Brook, the second largest herring run in Wareham. The project will open up 1,500 feet of the brook and improve passage of herring and other anadromous fish from Muddy Cove in Onset to Dicks Pond, improving access to 40 acres of spawning habitat. Town officials plan to hire an engineer to finalize design and a contractor to reconstruct the ladder.
  • Town of Bourne $30,500 to replace a collapsed culvert connecting Conservation Pond to Hen Cove in the village of Pocasset. In 1991, after Hurricane Bob, the town installed the existing culvert as part of an emergency repair of the coastal road. The pipe has since filled with debris, restricting tidal exchange to the salt pond. The replacement of the culvert will improve tidal flushing, water quality and the restoration of tidal habitat.
  • Town of Fairhaven $25,000 for survey work and legal fees to support the acquisition of a 52 acre property called Nasketucket Woods in the Nasketucket River watershed. The property, predominantly forested wetlands, is within a Wellhead Protection Area and a drinking water protection district. The property includes an aquifer and endangered species priority habitat, and provides public walking, hiking and birding trails.
  • Town of Fairhaven $10,000 to fund a program to evaluate stormwater discharges to Little Bay, Nasketucket Bay and connecting streams, which are all designated as impaired and closed to shellfishing. Fairhaven has hundreds of discharge pipes and culverts that discharge to wetlands and surface waters. The program aims to identify the most problematic discharge areas by evaluating stormwater runoff from residential and agricultural areas and collecting and analyzing water samples.
  • Town of Acushnet $8,000 for survey work, appraisal fees, and closing costs for the acquisition of a 10-acre property on Keene Road along the Keene River. The property overlies a potential drinking water supply aquifer and a core habitat and natural landscape for rare species. The site also provides public riverside canoe and kayak launches and could support a public trail system.
  • Town of Rochester $7,500 to conduct a feasibility study for improving the passage of anadromous fish at the Hathaway Pond Dam. The town is considering a range of options including dam removal and restoration of an inoperable fish ladder. Town officials plan to hire an environmental firm to collect and test river sediments near the dam and conduct a legal and environmental review of permitting issues and access rights. The purpose of the project is to support a multi-year effort to restore the Sippican River for anadromous fish and other aquatic species.

The request for grant proposals is still posted on the state procurement website Comm-Pass (search “Buzzards”). Purpose of the RFR: “The Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs (EOEEA), 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 and state funds recently provided by the legislature.”

Read the cover letter to the municipalities.

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. For participation in the stormwater program, the discharge must be contributing to an existing impairment.

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