# Assessing Water Quality Trends and Suspended Sediment Surrogates Above and Below Reservoirs Using High-Frequency Sensors in New Mexico and Southern Colorado

Source: https://welltoldgrants.com/grants/w81ewf-25-soi-0014-assessing-water-quality-trends-and-suspended-sediment/  
Official notice: https://www.grants.gov/search-results-detail/359835

> Engineer Research and Development Center offered grants of up to $150,000 to the applicants described in the notice. It expected to make one award worth $950,000 in total. Applications closed on August 11, 2025.

| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Opportunity number | W81EWF-25-SOI-0014 |
| Agency | Engineer Research and Development Center |
| Status | Forecast |
| Deadline | August 11, 2025 |
| Award ceiling | $150,000 |
| Award floor | not stated |
| Expected awards | 1 |
| Total funding | $950,000 |
| Cost sharing | not required |
| Assistance Listings | 12.630 |

## Who can apply

- Others (see text field entitled "Additional Information on Eligibility" for clarification)

This opportunity is restricted to non-federal partners of the Colorado Plateau Cooperative Ecosystems Studies Unit (CESU).

## What the grant funds

The Vendor and SPA will maintain eleven (11) real-time, long-term, and high-frequency water quality monitoring stations above and below SPA-managed reservoirs (Table 1) to achieve Objective 1. At each station, five water quality parameters (i.e., temperature, conductivity, dissolved oxygen, pH and turbidity) will be collected using multi-parameter sensors (YSI Sonde). Sensor maintenance will occur at 4–6-week intervals following current USGS operating procedures (Wagner et al. 2006). All time-series records collected will be analyzed and approved following USGS procedures (Wagner et al. 2006) using Aquarius Time-Series (Aquatic Informatics, Vancouver, Canada) which the Vender will purchase and maintain, providing SPA with remote access. The Vendor and SPA will maintain real-time data acquisition and photovoltaic power systems (where installed) at each site. The Vendor will maintain the communication and retrieval between all deployed sensors, dataloggers, computers, and servers where data will be stored. Continuous water quality datasets will be made publicly available through CUAHSI HydroShare, a collaborative platform for sharing hydrologic data, models, and code (Objective 1). It supports findability, accessibility, interoperability, and reusability (FAIR) data principles. Each dataset will include comprehensive metadata and documentation, detailing the source, collection methods, and any processing steps. Findings from this project should demonstrate the importance of continued high-frequency sampling to further elucidate how reservoirs are impacted by riverine water and sediment deposition and how these impacts are affected by climatic and hydrologic variability and the impacts of watershed-scale disturbances (e.g., drought, flood, wildfire), point-source and non-point-source pollution, and alteration of the natural flow regime (Objective 2). The Vendor will propose specific research topics that incorporate sonde data collected under this project, in addition to other readily available data sets, to address these objectives and that are also of interest to the greater scientific community. While collecting accurate and reliable suspended sediment data is critical to water resources planning, reservoir management, and research, the cost of installing, operating and maintaining the suspended sediment gages has caused a decline in the existing network.

## Questions people ask

### Is W81EWF-25-SOI-0014 still open?

No. It closed on August 11, 2025. A newer notice is open: W912HZ26S0001, closes January 1, 2027 (55 days left).

### Who can apply for Assessing Water Quality Trends and Suspended Sediment Surrogates Above and Below Reservoirs Using High-Frequency Sensors in New Mexico and Southern Colorado?

Engineer Research and Development Center accepted applications from the applicants described in the notice. The notice adds further conditions, so read its eligibility section.

### What is the deadline for Assessing Water Quality Trends and Suspended Sediment Surrogates Above and Below Reservoirs Using High-Frequency Sensors in New Mexico and Southern Colorado?

Closed August 11, 2025. Applications are no longer accepted; the program's newer notices are on this page when there are any.

### How much funding is available?

Awards of up to $150,000 each. About $950,000 in total for one award.

### Who has won Basic, Applied, and Advanced Research in Science and Engineering grants before?

The largest recipients over five fiscal years were Battelle Memorial Institute, Msi Stem Research & Development Consortium, University of California San Diego. The program made 1,101 awards worth $1.3 billion in that time.