Sewer Overflow & Stormwater Reuse Grant (OSG)
Division of Water Resources, State Water Infrastructure Grants ProgramThe State Water Infrastructure Grants Program is currently accepting applications:
From November 8, 2024 – December 22, 2024
Background
The Division of Water Resources (DWR) State Water Infrastructure Grants Program (SWIG) is offering a funding opportunity through the Sewer Overflow and Stormwater Reuse Municipal Grant (OSG). This funding is dedicated to improving stormwater management and increasing green infrastructure within the state.
The DWR is awarding this grant to address the chronic underfunding of stormwater management within America's water infrastructure. While certain communities have successfully implemented stormwater fees to support water quality and management projects, many others lack this financial resource. The funding from OSG seeks to bridge this significant gap in stormwater funding, ensuring that all communities have the support needed to manage stormwater effectively.
Effective stormwater management is critical to maintaining a municipality's water system, mitigating stormwater damage, and protecting vulnerable outlets for stormwater, such as streams and tributaries. Inadequate stormwater infrastructure and management within municipalities can lead to water system failures, posing significant risks to residents and harming the community. Municipalities that encounter stormwater infrastructure failures may face higher costs in addressing these failures compared to implementing proactive stormwater management measures beforehand.
OSG funding allows municipalities or municipal entities to facilitate the planning, designing, and implementation of strategies to manage, minimize, treat, or reclaim stormwater or subsurface drainage water. TDEC is directing its grant initiative toward achieving the following objectives:
- Support rural and small communities with a population of 10,000 or fewer;
- Support disadvantaged communities with an Ability to Pay Index (ATPI) of 50 or less that want to improve stormwater quality and/or restore natural features for improved hydrology with green infrastructure components;
- Improve the water quality within the watersheds where projects are executed by increasing pervious surfaces or infiltrating, reusing, and evapotranspiring stormwater before entering the stream;
- Fund projects where 50-100% of the project consists of green infrastructure; and
- Fund projects that focus on implementing best management practices for stormwater activities.
Eligible grant entities will complete a grant application using SWIG’s Grants Management System (GMS). The grant application will establish the items needed for a complete application. All grant applications must be submitted by the announced deadline.
- Sewer Overflow and Stormwater Reuse Municipal Grant Manual (update November 1, 2024)
Eligible grant applicants include municipalities or municipal entities that own or operate a public water system. Grant applicants are responsible for overseeing and monitoring grant activities, submitting progress updates as requested by SWIG, and managing the grant contract scopes of services. For additional information about oversight, monitoring, and progress update submittal, see the Funding Conditions section of this grant manual.
Eligible projects for this OSG funding will focus on green stormwater and subsurface drainage water management practices. The EPA's OSG implementation guide outlines the eligibility criteria for projects related to combined sewer overflows (CSO) and sanitary sewer overflows (SSO). The State of Tennessee, however, has opted not to accept project applications in these categories. The State of Tennessee is seeking proposals for projects focused on managing stormwater and subsurface drainage water exclusively. All projects related to CSO and SSO will be ruled INELIGIBLE upon submission. This is NOT a solicitation for projects focused on flood preparedness and projects to fortify flood resiliency. Projects focused on flood preparedness and flood resiliency will be ruled INELIGIBLE. Examples of financial assistance that can be used are provided below. This list is not meant to be exclusive, and other eligible projects may be consistent with the OSG authorizing statute that is not specifically mentioned in this document.
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) defines stormwater management as any measures to manage, reduce, treat, or recapture stormwater or subsurface drainage water. The EPA defines green infrastructure (see Appendix A) as a range of measures that use plant or soil systems, permeable pavement or other permeable surfaces or substrates, stormwater harvest and reuse, or landscaping to store, infiltrate, or evapotranspirate stormwater and reduce flows to surface waters. The following activities are examples of eligible stormwater activities and include the use of green infrastructure to mitigate the impact of stormwater on the environment:
- Planning, design, and construction of treatment works to intercept, transport, control, treat, or reuse municipal stormwater; and any other measures to manage, reduce, treat, or recapture stormwater or subsurface drainage water;
- Installation of permeable pavement in urban areas to allow stormwater infiltration;
- Construction of green roofs on municipal buildings to capture and manage rainfall;
- Creation of bioswales or rain gardens to naturally filter and manage stormwater runoff;
- Implementation of stormwater harvesting systems to capture and reuse rainwater for irrigation or other non-potable uses;
- Establishment of vegetated buffer zones along water bodies to reduce runoff and promote filtration;
- The development and/or implementation of a stormwater conservation and management plan;
- Reduce demand for publicly owned treatment works capacity and energy consumption through water conservation, efficiency, reuse, or other reasonable methods.
SWIG anticipates awarding up to six OSG grants in SFY 2024. The maximum grant award is $500,000 per applicant. Grant applicants must consider proposal budget maximums and match requirements when developing and submitting proposals. A proposal’s total project budget is the sum of the grant award and match. The match will be applied to the total project budget for each reimbursement request.
The 2022 Ability To Pay Index (ATPI) determines the match requirements criteria. No match is required for entities with an ATPI of 50 or less OR entities with a population of 10,000 or less.
The anticipated timeline for this grant offering is as follows:
August – September 2024 | Grant Manual Released |
September - December 2024 | Open Application Solicitation & Grant Workshops |
October 2024 - January 2025 | Close Application Solicitation |
November 2024 - February 2025 | Reveiw, Evaluate, & Recommend Awards |
January - March 2025 | All Contracts Executed |
- None scheduled at this time.
CONTACT |
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Ask.SRF@tn.gov |
This Page Last Updated: December 4, 2024 at 3:03 PM