How to Apply for Nonpoint Source Grants

How to apply for grants to cleanup or prevent water pollution including eligibility, requirements, and guidelines

Requests for Grant Applications
Grant Administration and Sources of Funding
Who Is Eligible?
What Activities Are Eligible?
Watershed Planning Projects
Quality Assurance Requirements
Guidance for NPS Grants
Tools for Documenting Pollutant Reductions
Agricultural and Silvicultural Grants
For More Information
2013 Application Scoring Criteria and Timeline

Requests for Grant Applications

The TCEQ is scheduled to release its next Clean Water Act Section 319 Request for Grant Applications (RFGA) on May 31, 2013. Applications will be accepted through July 30. New application forms and materials will be posted on this web site by May 31.

A copy of last year's Application Template in PDF (including a project Scope of Work) is available for your reference. Specialized templates for projects to characterize watersheds through monitoring or modeling and for projects to develop Watershed Protection Plans are also available. See Watershed Planning Projects below. All these forms will be revised and updated for the RFGA release on May 31, 2013.

Grant Administration and Sources of Funding

The TCEQ and the Texas State Soil and Water Conservation Board administer federal grants for activities that prevent or reduce nonpoint source pollution. Grants are awarded annually and fund projects for up to three years. The TCEQ usually solicits grants in the summer of each year. Opportunities to apply are published on this Web page and Electronic State Business Daily .

The grants are made available through a federal program authorized under Section 319 of the Clean Water Act. See descriptions of active projects funded through the TCEQ’s Nonpoint Source Program.

The 2013 Application Scoring Criteria and Timeline is also available for your reference. This document is updated for each annual RFGA and may not all be applicable for the next RFGA.

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Who Is Eligible?

All nonprofit organizations, and all state agencies or political subdivisions of the State of Texas—including cities, counties, school districts, state universities, and special districts—are eligible. Private organizations may participate in projects as partners or contractors but may not apply directly for funding.

Applicants are encouraged to partner with other local, state, and federal authorities to increase the impact of their activities. Participation offers the following benefits:

More and better information is available for managing surface water resources.
It ensures local perspectives are considered in decision making by government.
Stakeholders gain insight into the nature of water quality problems and solutions.
It promotes local stewardship of water resources through voluntary action.

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What Activities Are Eligible?

To be eligible for funding, a project must address the objectives, goals and/or priorities identified in the State of Texas Nonpoint Source Management Program or nonpoint source elements in the Texas Coastal Management Plan . Priority is given to funding development and implementation of watershed protection plans or TMDL Implementation Plans.

Other eligible activities include:

assessment of nonpoint sources of water pollution
education and outreach
implementation of both technology-based and water quality–based management measures

Projects that implement permit requirements for storm water are not eligible for funding. However, storm water management activities not required by permit might be eligible for assistance. Also, even in areas with storm water permits, low impact development practices and retrofits of storm water control structures are usually eligible for funding.

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Watershed Planning Projects

The development of a Watershed Protection Plan (WPP) requires sufficient water quality data to characterize pollutant sources and determine whether there are obvious sources of pollution that can be addressed through means other than a WPP. To make this determination, and to allow adequate time for analysis of the data, the TCEQ NPS Program recommends a phased approach to watershed planning . This three-phase approach recommends that a monitoring (data collection and assessment) phase and a modeling (pollutant load estimation) phase be completed before proposing a project to develop a WPP.

The following are draft RFGA application/scope of work templates for projects in each of these phases of watershed planning:

Please note: TCEQ funding of a first or second phase project does not obligate the agency to fund additional phases of WPP development for that watershed.

Quality Assurance Requirements

All project-related water quality data must be collected and analyzed in accordance with an approved Quality Assurance Project Plan (QAPP).

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Guidance for NPS Grants

The following Web pages provide guidance and information for Section 319 grant projects.

2004 (current) EPA Guidelines for Section 319 Grants
Watershed Planning Guidance
Public Education Resources
Hydrography Maps and Data (see particularly under GIS Data Sets: Texas Stream Segments, 2012 - certified layer)
Clean Water Act Section 319
Cost Share/Match Guidelines for Universities and Nonprofits
Cost Share/Match Guidelines for State and Local Government

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Tools for Documenting Pollutant Reductions

The federal nonpoint source program uses the term "best management practices," or BMPs, to refer to any activity that has proven effective in preventing or reducing nonpoint source pollution. Every grant project that implements BMPs must include an estimate of the amount of pollution its activities will prevent or reduce, and an evaluation of the performance of the BMPS implemented.

Links to some of the BMPs that Texas has found effective are provided below. Information on those websites should prove useful for estimating pollutant reductions from the associated practices.