Federal grant programs / Environmental Protection Agency

Geographic Programs – Long Island Sound Program (66.437)

Also known as Long Island Sound Partnership (LIS Partnership)

• Awarded, FY 2021 to 2025$239 million
• Grant awards50
• Typical award$3.2 million
• Awarded in FY 2025$57.2 million
• Size rank565 of 1,823
• Type of assistanceProject grants

Key findings

• Annual funding rose from $28.4 million in fiscal 2021 to $57.2 million in fiscal 2025.
• It is the 565th largest of 1,823 federal grant programs by five-year awards.
• The 12 largest recipients received 100% of the money.
• Awards went to recipients in 4 states and territories.

What the program funds

The Long Island Sound Program: (1) implements the Long Island Sound (LIS) Comprehensive Conservation and Management Plan (CCMP); and (2) assists the states of Connecticut and New York and other public or nonprofit entities in implementation, research, planning, enforcement, and citizen involvement and education related to reducing pollution and improving the quality of the environment to sustain living resources in the Long Island Sound. Under the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA), Long Island Sound has received $21 million for FY 2022-25 through CWA §119 and $909,800/year through CWA §320. These allocations will continue through 2026. The LIS Partnership goal for IIJA funding is to significantly improve Long Island Sound’s environmental health, resilience, and economic vitality in communities across the Sound’s watershed.

From the federal Assistance Listing. Read the full listing on SAM.gov.

Open opportunities

No opportunity under this program is open or forecast on Grants.gov right now. Programs often post once a year, so the funding history below shows what to expect.

Rules from the program listing

What the money can and cannot pay for

Funds may be used to implement elements of the LIS CCMP. Special emphasis shall be given to CCMP implementation projects, research and planning, enforcement, and citizen involvement and education projects. The Administrator may give priority to a distressed community as defined in 33 USC 1269(e)(1). Assistance Listing 66.456 (National Estuary Program) also authorizes funding to assist in the implementation of the LIS CCMP. As a result, an assistance agreement under assistance listing 66.437 to support implementation of the LIS CCMP can also use funds under assistance listing 66.456. Assistance agreement awards under this program may involve or relate to geospatial information. Further information regarding geospatial information may be obtained by viewing the following website: Geospatial Resources at EPA (https://www.epa.gov/geospatial). This program makes Federal awards on a discretionary basis. A discretionary award means an award in which the Federal awarding agency, in keeping with specific statutory authority that enables the agency to exercise judgement (“discretion”), selects the recipient and/or the amount of Federal funding awarded through a competitive process or based on merit of proposals. A discretionary award may be selected on a non-competitive basis, as appropriate. For further information, please contact the Headquarters or regional office.

Matching requirements

This program has no statutory formula. Federal costs for citizen involvement and education grants shall not exceed 95 percent of the costs of such work; for all other grants and cooperative agreements, federal costs shall not exceed 60 percent of the research, studies, or work. EPA has determined that annual matching requirements for LIS grant awards may be met in the aggregate for all funds awarded as specified in the approved annual work plan. Public Law 106-457, which amended Section 320(g) of the Clean Water Act, limits the amount of grants to 50 percent of the aggregate Comprehensive Conservation and Management Plan (CCMP) implementation project costs for each estuary program, and requires that the nonfederal share be provided from nonfederal sources. For awards containing both funds (Long Island Sound & National Estuary), the aggregate cost share must be calculated. EPA has determined that annual matching requirements for LIS grant awards shall be met in the aggregate for all funds awarded as specified in the approved annual work plan. As authorized by Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, Public Law 117-58, EPA may waive or reduce the cost share required by Section 119(d) and Section 320(g)(3) of the Clean Water Act for LIS assistance agreements funded with IIJA appropriations.MOE requirements are not applicable to this assistance listing.

Deadlines

Contact the headquarters or regional location, as appropriate for application deadlines

Award range and average, in the agency's words

Range: $20,000 to $12,600,000/fiscal year; Average: $1,997,033/fiscal year. In FY2024, EPA issued 10 new assistance awards and amended 2 current assistance awards to include the FY2024 funding. In FY2025 under BIL funding, EPA will incrementally fund 5 current assistance awards. In addition, EPA will enter into 6 interagency agreements and establish 2 contracts to support work tasks. Some of these awards will provide opportunities for communities to receive subawards.

Examples of funded projects

Fiscal Year2016: Grants and cooperative agreements awarded to states and local governments, colleges, universities, interstate agencies and nonprofit organizations are for nonpoint source implementation, scientific research, water quality monitoring and modeling, public education and outreach, living resources management, habitat restoration and program support. Examples are listed as follows: (1) Hypoxia: sustain and accelerate efforts to meet the LISS nutrient reduction goals in the nitrogen Total Maximum Daily Load to attain water quality conditions necessary to support the living resources of the Sound; (2) Habitat Restoration: restore and protect living resources, their habitats and ecological relationships; (3) Water Quality Monitoring: collect water quality samples at monitoring stations in Long Island Sound and interpret data on Long Island Sound and embayments. (4) Communication/Outreach: Provide communication, outreach and education components of the LISS partnership; (5) Modeling: develop, calibrate, and manage the application of linked airshed-watershed-estuarine hydrodynamic-water quality-living resources models to support the LISS for understanding the nutrient and sediment affects in the Long Island Sound estuary system and (6) Research: investigate causes and effects of eutrophication on water quality and living marine resources; study factors affecting abundance and distribution of submerged aquatic vegetation, food web dynamics, and tidal wetland loss.

Continue reading on SAM.gov

Quoted from the program's federal Assistance Listing. The notice of funding opportunity is the official source for each competition's rules.

Who usually wins

State and local governments received 48% of the money, nonprofits 30% and colleges and universities 14%.

By state

Each state below has its own page for this program, with its recipients and yearly totals.

Award amounts are federal obligations reported to USAspending.gov for fiscal 2021 to 2025; see how our data works.