Statewide - Eligibility Guidelines for Grants for Eastern Finger Lakes Coalition of County Soil and Water Conservation Districts to implement water quality projects in the[...]

Public Notice

Eligibility Guidelines for Grants for Eastern Finger Lakes Coalition of County Soil and Water Conservation Districts to implement water quality projects in the Eastern Finger Lakes Watersheds

The New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets (NYS AGM) in collaboration with the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (NYS DEC) developed the following eligibility guidelines to allocate funding to support projects under the Clean Water, Clean Air and Green Jobs Environmental Bond Act of 2022 (Bond Act). NYS AGM will use feedback to these draft eligibility guidelines to deliver non-competitive grants to support the Eastern Finger Lakes Coalition (EFLC) of County Soil and Water Conservation Districts (SWCDs) to implement or fund water quality projects in the Eastern Finger Lakes Program area.

Eastern Finger Lakes Coalition Water Quality Projects Implementation Program:
The NYS AGM, in coordination with the State Soil and Water Conservation Committee, will provide grant funding to the EFLC of SWCDs to implement (Agriculture Environmental Management [AEM] Tier IV) agricultural best management practice systems (BMPs) on New York farms and/or streambank/streambed management practice systems, roadside drainage management practice systems, including culvert replacements, and flood resiliency practices throughout the Eastern Finger Lakes Watershed.

Eligible Applicants:
The eligible applicant is the Administrator of the SWCD of the EFLCs for the following counties: Cayuga, Chemung, Cortland, Onondaga, Ontario, Schuyler, Seneca, Steuben, Tompkins, Wayne, and Yates.

Eligible Agricultural Nonpoint Source projects must:
• be listed in farm specific AEM Tier 3 plans;
• be identified in AEM strategic plans and/or the project addresses the pollutant of concern or implements a solution identified in an United States Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA) approved or NYS DEC approved or accepted clean water plans, including TMDLs and Nine Element Plans. Additionally, projects that support actions identified in New York State HAB Action Plans, NYS DEC Watershed Program Action Agendas and NYS DEC accepted Drinking Water Source Protection Plans;
• reduce, abate, control, or prevent nonpoint source pollution originating from agricultural sources, including nutrients and sedimentation;
• meet NYS USDA Natural Resources Conservation Services (NRCS) standards and specifications, or other generally accepted NYS standards and specification, including but not limited to the NYS Standards and Specification for Erosion and Sediment Control (Blue Book), the NYS Stormwater Design Manual, and the North Atlantic Aquatic Connectivity Collaborative (NAAC) protocol; and
• have a bondable life of at least 10 years.

Eligible BMP Systems include, but are not limited to:
• Access Control System
• Agrichemical Handling and Storage System
• Composting System - Animal
• Erosion Control System - Structural
• Irrigation Water Management System
• Livestock Heavy Use Area Management System
• Manure and Agricultural Waste Treatment System
• Pathogen Management System
• Petroleum and Oil Products Storage System
• Prescribed Rotational Grazing System
• Process Wash Water Management System
• Riparian Forest and Herbaceous Buffer Systems
• Silage Leachate Control and Treatment System
• Stream Corridor and Shoreline Management System
• Waste Storage and Transfer System
• Short Term Waste Collection and Transfer System

Projects on Non-Agricultural Lands must:
• reduce, abate, control, or prevent nonpoint source pollution, reduce erosion and sedimentation from streambeds/banks, address flood resiliency, reduce erosion and sedimentation from road corridors, improve aquatic connectivity and stormwater flow through the proper sizing of culverts, or improve stormwater management;
• project addresses the pollutant of concern or implements a solution identified in an US EPA approved or NYS DEC approved or accepted clean water plans, including TMDLs and Nine Element Plans. Additionally, projects that support actions identified in HAB Action Plans, NYS DEC Action Agendas and DEC accepted Drinking Water Source Protection Plans;
• meet NYS USDA Natural Resources Conservation Services (NRCS) standards and specifications where applicable, or other generally accepted NYS standards and specifications (including but not limited to the NYS Standards and Specification for Erosion and Sediment Control (Blue Book), the NYS Stormwater Design Manual, New York State Department of Transportation (NYS DOT) Highway Design Manual, NYS DEC Technical Guidance, and the North Atlantic Aquatic Connectivity Collaborative (NAAC) protocol); and
• have a bondable life of at least 10 years.
Projects may require a hydrological and hydraulic (H&H) analysis conducted by a licensed professional engineer using HEC-RAS, HY-8 or other comparable H&H modeling. Projects that fall wholly or partially within the 100-year or 500-year floodplain must comply with state and federal flood requirements.

Eligible projects include but are not limited to:
• Stream Corridor and Shoreline Management Systems
• Riparian Forest and Herbaceous Buffer Systems
• Floodplain Management Systems
• Road/Stream Crossing (Culvert) Replacement
• Roadside Erosion Control Systems
• Stormwater Management Systems (Practices)
• Green Infrastructure Management Systems (Practices)
• Water and Sediment Control Basin Systems
• Constructed and Restored Wetlands

The Bond Act requires that disadvantaged communities shall receive no less than 35 percent, with the goal of 40 percent, of the benefit of total Bond Act funds ($4.2 billion). In line with this goal, NYS AGM will aim to deploy at least 40 percent of the funding to the EFLC to benefit disadvantaged communities as part of efforts to achieve the 40 percent overall goal.

Disadvantaged communities are those identified by the Climate Justice Working Group, pursuant to the Disadvantaged Communities Criteria - New York's Climate Leadership & Community Protection Act (ny.gov) (https://climate.ny.gov/Resources/Disadvantaged-Communities-Criteria).

Public comments on the guidelines are to be submitted in writing to the contact listed below and will be accepted until Friday, December 13, 2024, at 5:00 p.m.