Grants to Pennsylvania government agencies, nonprofit organizations, and educational institutions to improve water quality and restore watersheds. Certain applicants must contact program staff prior to applying. Funding is intended to reduce pollution and preserve statewide water resources. The goal of the grant program is to protect and enhance the state's waters from nonpoint source pollution associated with AMD, energy resource extraction, agricultural activities, stormwater runoff, streambank, and shoreline degradation, along with verifying and demonstrating efficacy with enhanced data collection and distribution.

Objectives:

• Reduce AMD-related iron, aluminum, and acidity pollutant loads.
• Reduce nitrogen, phosphorus, and sediment pollutant loads.
• Implement stream restoration, bank stabilization, and/or stormwater management projects.
• Plant, maintain, and protect riparian forest buffers.
• Implement agricultural Best Management Practices (BMPs).
  

Priorities:

• Priority will be given to agricultural BMP implementation identified in an existing Section 319 WIP. If funded, agricultural BMP projects will have some flexibility to add WIP project sites and will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis.
• Priority will be given to WIP BMP implementation projects that address stormwater runoff, stream channel degradation, AMD, and floodplain restoration to mitigate the risk of flood damage in the watershed.
• Priority will be given to new WIP development in Pennsylvania’s Environmental Justice (EJ) areas.
• Preference will be given to high priority WIP implementation projects located within critical subwatersheds areas. Critical areas for water quality improvement are prioritized, specific subwatersheds to implement WIP BMPs, addressing causes and sources of water quality impairments. They are designed to achieve water quality standards within 5-10 years.
• Preference will be given to projects that effectively addresses water quality impairments in a cost-effective way.
• Preference will be given for WIP implementation in Tier 1-4 within the Chesapeake Bay Watershed. Please see page 8 for a map, county list, and associated tiers.
• Applications that implement statewide or regional projects addressing nonpoint source pollution to restore or protect water quality may be considered, if funding remains after addressing projects implementing existing WIPs, new EJ WIP development, and revising existing WIPs.
  

Priority will be given to applications that develop new WIPs in Environmental Justice areas for 12-digit Hydrologic Unit Code (HUC) scale watersheds, based upon EPA’s nine minimum watershed plan elements for threatened or impaired waters.

For information regarding the required nine watershed elements for new WIP Development, see page 3 of the Guidelines, in Supporting Documents, below. 

For additional considerations, see page 4 of the Guidelines, in Supporting Documents, below.