Federal grant programs / Environmental Protection Agency

Geographic Programs – Lake Champlain Basin Program (66.481)

Also known as Lake Champlain Program

• Awarded, FY 2021 to 2025$130 million
• Grant awards16
• Typical award$8.1 million
• Awarded in FY 2025$22.8 million
• Size rank730 of 1,823
• Type of assistanceProject grants

Key findings

• Annual funding rose from $15.0 million in fiscal 2021 to $22.8 million in fiscal 2025.
• It is the 730th largest of 1,823 federal grant programs by five-year awards.
• Awards went to recipients in 3 states and territories.

What the program funds

The goal of this program is to implement the Lake Champlain Basin Management Plan, Opportunities for Action: An Evolving Plan for the Future of the Lake Champlain Basin 2022 (Opportunities for Action), and to assist the states of New York and Vermont in protecting, restoring and preserving the water quality and ecological health of the Lake Champlain ecosystem. In FY 2026 efforts in Lake Champlain will continue to support the successful interstate, interagency, and international partnership undertaking the implementation of Opportunities for Action, a plan designed to protect and where necessary restore the lake's water quality, sustain healthy ecosystems in the basin, support thriving communities and inform and involve the public in lake issues and activities. Non-competitive financial awards under this program are made to the States of Vermont and New York, and to the New England Interstate Water Pollution Control Commission (NEIWPCC) to implement Opportunities for Action. Congress directed EPA to allocate $25,000,000 for the Lake Champlain program via the Appropriations Act of 2024. These funds shall be allocated through the Lake Champlain Basin Program (LCBP), other than $8,000,000, which shall be directed to support significant, impactful projects identified in the state implementation plan that will make measurable progress towards meeting the phosphorus reduction targets of the EPA's 2016 Phosphorus Total Maximum Daily Load Plan for Lake Champlain. Funding priorities include phosphorus reduction, cyanobacteria control, water quality monitoring to track progress and alerts to the public if unsafe conditions exist, implementation of the Great Lakes and Lake Champlain Invasive Species Program as authorized by the Vessel Incident Discharge Act (Public Law 115–282), aquatic invasive species prevention and control, habitat protection and restoration, and environmental education and outreach. The Lake Champlain priorities for funding include increased technical assistance, capacity, and implementation funding to support aquatic organism passage, floodplain restoration and flood mitigation, use of natural infrastructure, and habitat restoration and conservation programs. IIJA funding will also be prioritized to support significant, impactful projects identified in the state implementation plan that will make measurable progress towards meeting the phosphorus reduction targets of the EPA’s 2016 Phosphorus Total Maximum Daily Load Plan for Lake Champlain, and to implement the Great Lakes and Lake Champlain Invasive Species Program as authorized by the Vessel Incident Discharge Act (Public Law 115–282) to address invasive species in the Great Lakes and Lake Champlain.

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

Who can apply

For certain competitive funding opportunities under this assistance listing, the Agency may limit eligibility to compete to a number or subset of eligible applicants consistent with the Agency’s Policy for Competition of Assistance Agreements. In accordance with Section 120 of the Clean Water Act, EPA may provide non-competitive funding to the states of Vermont and New York and to NEIWPCC for the implementation of the LCBP. In addition, EPA may choose to solicit applications from other state, interstate, and regional water pollution control agencies, and public or nonprofit agencies, institutions, and organizations that are eligible to receive competitive grants from EPA through this program.

What the money can and cannot pay for

As described in Section 120 of the CWA, funds may be used to implement elements of Opportunities for Action, implementation of the Great Lakes and Lake Champlain Invasive Species Program as authorized by the Vessel Incident Discharge Act, and for the 2016 Total Maximum Daily Load for Phosphorus in Lake Champlain. Projects outside of the Lake Champlain Basin are not eligible for funding under this program. Grant awards must be made in consultation with the Lake Champlain Basin Steering Committee and support activities consistent with the goals of Opportunities for Action. 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 regional office.

Matching requirements

This program has no statutory formula. The amount of grants to any person under this subsection for a fiscal year shall not exceed 75 per centum of the costs of such research, survey, study and work and shall be made available on the condition that non-Federal share of such costs are provided from non-Federal sources. Match requirements may be waived for work funded by appropriations from the Infrastructure Investments and Jobs Act (IIJA) at the Administrator’s discretion.MOE requirements are not applicable to this assistance listing.

Deadlines

For competitive awards, deadlines will be specified in the Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO). For noncompetitive awards to Vermont, New York and NEIWPCC, contact the regional contacts listed below for application deadlines.

Award range and average, in the agency's words

Range: $2,000,000 to $11,524,700 in FY23; Average award: $8,082,000.

Examples of funded projects

Fiscal Year2025: For examples of the types of projects associated with this Assistance Listing, visit “Featured Projects” at: https://www.lcbp.org/about-us/what-we-do/featured-projects/.

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 46% of the money.

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.