Federal grant programs / Environmental Protection Agency

Geographic Programs - Columbia River Basin Restoration (CRBR) Program (66.962)

Also known as CWA Section 123

• Awarded, FY 2021 to 2025$67.7 million
• Grant awards50
• Typical award$349,949
• Awarded in FY 2025$15.2 million
• Size rank931 of 1824
• Type of assistanceGrant

Key findings

• It is the 931st largest of 1,824 federal grant programs by five-year awards.
• The 20 largest recipients received 96% of the money.
• Awards went to recipients in 6 states and territories.

What the program funds

To support the protection and restoration of the Columbia River Basin, Congress established the Columbia River Basin Restoration Program (CRBRP) per Clean Water Act Section 123, implemented by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). CRBRP promotes ecosystem protection and restoration activities and strategies by working with federal agencies, states, tribes, regional water pollution control agencies and entities, local governments, non-governmental entities and soil and water conservation districts to improve water quality and support environmental protection and restoration. The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) is being used to fund additional cooperative agreements throughout the Columbia River Basin for toxic reduction projects. The Columbia River Basin Restoration Program is grounded in statutory direction to assess trends in water quality, as well as to collect, characterize, and assess data on water quality to identify possible causes of environmental problems; administer a grant program; and establish the Columbia River Basin Restoration Working Group. In accordance with Clean Water Act Section 123, the Program provides grants for projects that assist in eliminating or reducing pollution, cleaning up contaminated sites, improving water quality, monitoring to evaluate trends, reducing runoff, protecting habitat, or promoting citizen engagement or knowledge.

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

The work must be for the purpose of environmental protection and restoration activities within the Columbia River Basin and may include programs, projects, and studies in accordance with Clean Water Act Section 123, which calls for: eliminating or reducing pollution, cleaning up contaminated sites, improving water quality, monitoring to evaluate trends, reducing runoff; protecting habitat, or promoting citizen engagement or knowledge. 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. 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. Grants and cooperative agreements are available to support recipients' allowable direct costs incident to approved cooperative agreements plus allowable indirect costs, in accordance with established EPA policies and regulations.;

Matching requirements

This program has no statutory formula. Projects under this program are subject to the following funding limitations and mandatory cost share requirements: a. For non-tribal applicants EPA will fund up to 75% of the cost of the overall project (i.e., applicants are responsible for cost-sharing at least 25% of the cost with non-federal funds). b. For tribal applicants EPA will fund up to 75% of the cost of the overall projects (i.e., tribal applicants are responsible for cost-sharing at least 25% of the cost with either non-federal and/or federal funds). c. The Administrator may increase the Federal share under such circumstances as the Administrator determines to be appropriate. Reference 33 U.S.C §1275(d)(2)(B) Regional Administrators may waive non-federal share requirements at the Notice of Funding Opportunities (NOFOs) or project level if they would substantially delay projects slated to move forward using FY22 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) funds. Any exercise of this waiver should be properly documented per requirements from EPA’s Office of the Chief Grants Officer.MOE requirements are not applicable to this assistance listing.

Deadlines

For competitive awards, deadlines will be specified in the (Notice of Funding Opportunities (NOFOs). This program is eligible for coverage under E.O. 12372, "Intergovernmental Review of Federal Programs." An applicant should consult the office or official designated as the single point of contact in his or her State for more information on the process the State requires to be followed in applying for assistance if the State has selected the program for review.

Award range and average, in the agency's words

$60,000 to $350,000 for two-to-five-year grants; average of $250,000. With Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) funding larger Notice of Funding Opportunities (NOFOs) were issued to develop strategic leads and Tribal grants on certain topics - range from $2,000,000-$7,000,000 for two to five year grants.

Examples of funded projects

Fiscal Year2022: Funded projects will reduce toxics, increase monitoring and/or increase public education and outreach like building Grattix Boxes which are effective and inexpensive stormwater treatment technology; expanding a surface water monitoring program to a region and crops that had not been sampled before; removing pounds of pesticides from watersheds; and developing a video to connect people with their water. For examples of the types of projects funded under this assistance listing, please visit the following website: https://www.epa.gov/columbiariver/about-epas-work-columbia-river-basin and https://www.epa.gov/columbiariver/columbia-river-basin-restoration-funding-assistance-program.Fiscal Year2024: Projects are designed to improve water quality in the Lower Columbia River Estuary, through specific actions to reduce toxics, increase monitoring, and/or increase public education and outreach. Projects are funded to assist tribal, state, and local governments; nongovernmental entities, and others as they implement the Columbia River Basin Toxics Reduction Action Plan and the Lower Columbia River Estuary Plan - Comprehensive Conservation and Management Plan and conduct activities to support EPA national goals for the Columbia River Basin. One specific example is a nonprofit organization was given funding to advance PFAS and phthalate reduction strategies with a focus on pollution prevention actions and source characterization.

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 33% of the money, nonprofits 29% and tribes 28%.

By state

4 states have a page for this program: those that received at least $1 million or 10 awards. They are Oregon, Washington, Montana and Idaho.

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