2011/2012 Grant Recipients
2011/2012 Urban Waters Small Grants Competition
Overview
Through the 2011/2012 Urban Waters Small Grants competition, the Environmental Protection Agency selected 55 organizations in 36 states and Puerto Rico to receive grants ranging from $30,280 to $60,000, totaling $3.2 million for projects that will contribute to improving water quality and community revitalization. The goal of these Urban Waters Small Grants is to fund research, studies, training, and demonstration projects that will advance the restoration of urban waters by improving water quality through activities that also support community revitalization and other local priorities. The funding is part of EPA’s Urban Waters program, which supports communities in their efforts to access, improve, and benefit from their urban waters and the surrounding land. Read full press release.
EPA received nearly 600 applications in response to this funding opportunity, a clear statement of the demand for this type of assistance. Full consideration was afforded to each applicant and many noteworthy proposals were reviewed. However, due to funding availability, EPA was not able to fund all the worthy proposals that were submitted.
Please note that the 2011/2012 Request for Proposal (RFP) and the 2013/2014 RFP were not identical. The 2013/2014 RFP had a geographic focus with 18 eligible locations across the U.S., while the 2011/2012 RFP was national in scope. Other differences include project objectives, threshold eligibility criteria, and selection criteria.
We encourage all applicants to join the Urban Waters Network, where members are notified about new funding opportunities, other available resources for local efforts, and success stories about communities reclaiming their urban waters. To join, please go to Urban Waters home (www.epa.gov/urbanwaters) and click on "Get Email Updates".
On this page - Urban Waters Small Grants Recipients by state:
The following recipients were selected for 2011/2012 Urban Waters Small Grants funding:
Alaska
Anchorage School District
Anchorage, Alaska
The Anchorage School District proposes to connect middle school students with the neighboring community and partnering agencies to monitor and promote water quality restoration of Chester Creek, an important Alaskan watershed and urban stream in Anchorage, Alaska. Begich Middle School serves the Muldoon neighborhood, a densely populated, low-income area with significant stream degradation.
Award Amount: $30,280
California
Council for Watershed Health
Los Angeles, California
The Council for Watershed Health will develop a Los Angeles River Watershed assessment framework and then disseminate the results to the community via multi-media outlets. The Council for Watershed Health will work with the EPA's Urban Waters Partnership and local stakeholders to identify factors and report out to the community.
Award Amount: $59,925
Friends of Marsh Creek Watershed
Brentwood, California
The Friends of Marsh Creek Watershed proposes to restore water quality in the Marsh Creek Watershed through increasing understanding and awareness of water quality issues and advancing restoration and stewardship. The main tasks proposed are: 1) Project Management; 2) Water Quality Monitoring; 3) Agricultural Community Outreach and Technical Assistance; 4) Community Member Outreach and Training; 5) Leadership Training; 6) Green Infrastructure Restoration Planning. The results of this project will lead to significant improvements in water quality, providing multiple benefits to the communities within the project area and the larger Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.
Award Amount: $60,000
Revive the San Joaquin
Fresno, California
The Revive the San Joaquin will develop regular citizen-based water quality monitoring events at locations on the San Joaquin River, create baseline data sets that can support San Joaquin River watershed restoration and regional water quality goals, and develop a public participation program that will actively educate adjacent landowners about water quality impacts of contaminated stormwater.
Award Amount: $59,660
Colorado
Barr Lake & Milton Reservoir Watershed Association
Denver, Colorado
The Barr Lake & Milton Reservoir Watershed Association proposes to bring together the nine watershed associations in the Denver metropolitan area, along with Metropolitan State College of Denver's One World, One Water Center for Urban Water Education and Sustainability (OWOW) and Water 2012 to develop effective, unified, comprehensive clean water messages for a coordinated public outreach campaign (including outreach to communities of color and low-income communities) that partners can implement.
Award Amount: $60,000
Earth Force Inc.
Denver, Colorado
Earth Force Inc. will work with Denver Public Works and Denver Public Schools to develop Outdoor Classrooms that reach 750 youth to result in stewardship of the South Platte River. It will also include teacher training workshops and development of an educational toolkit for outdoor classrooms.
Award Amount: $60,000
Connecticut
Harbor Watch, a Program of Earthplace
Norwalk, Connecticut
Harbor Watch (HW), a program of Earthplace, is a 25-year-old volunteer citizen’s water quality monitoring organization that is proposing a one-year storm drain screening and research project for three major storm drain systems discharging to Norwalk harbor to improve marine water quality at public beaches and for the local shellfish industry. The elimination of contaminating sources will have a clear economic benefit to the Norwalk community that relies on shell fishing for livelihood, and improving the overall water quality for this highly urbanized water body will ultimately lead to a cleaner Long Island Sound.
Award Amount: $52,637
Georgia
Upper Chattahoochee Riverkeeper
Atlanta, Georgia
The Upper Chattahoochee Riverkeeper will expand on the existing Neighborhood Water Watch Program, an existing collaborative partnership of the applicant, civic associations, watershed groups, schools, and government agencies to improve water quality in urban streams and protect public health. Begun in 2010, the program focuses on Atlanta’s urban core, empowering citizens to help improve water quality in their neighborhoods by collecting weekly samples for bacteria in neighborhoods and working with city officials and other appropriate agencies to stop pollution at its source.
Award Amount: $50,000
Hawaii
Malama Maunalua
Honolulu, Hawaii
The health and ecology of Maunalua Bay has been severely impacted by the effects of urban development and population growth during the last 50 years. The goal of the project is to reduce polluted runoff to Maunalua Bay from more than 20,000 households and 6 major commercial centers in the region by creating two highly visible sites to demonstrate stormwater management practices which are intended to increase awareness and influence the behavior of residents, visitors and bay users about the threats to the bay and the need for restoration.
Award Amount: $59,919
Illinois
Friends of the Chicago River
Chicago, Illinois
The Friends of the Chicago River will engage the community in stewardship work that improves water quality, habitat and access, while also providing outreach on stormwater best management practices and river-related water quality issues. The project seeks to increase public understanding and support of the natural value of the Chicago River and open space; increase use of local forest preserves for recreation and restoration activities; and increase use of best management practices (BMPs) by residents.
Award Amount: $60,000
Indiana
City of Indianapolis–Office of Sustainability
Indianapolis, Indiana
City of Indianapolis–Office of Sustainability will engage at least 100 individuals in their water currency “demonstration” program to promote watershed friendly choices, educate at least 150 volunteers and land managers about stormwater BMPs at their workshop, and communicate directly with a minimum of 250 landowners to gain interest in the city’s rain garden and native planting area program.
Award Amount: $60,000
Iowa
City of Iowa City
Iowa City, Iowa
The City of Iowa City will build community consensus around a plan and design alternatives incorporating best practices to modify the Burlington Street Dam for improved water quality, flood mitigation, public safety, and public access to the Iowa River to build a resilient river park system that will store, absorb, and filter polluted runoff and flood waters.
Award Amount: $60,000
Kansas
Kansas State University
Salina, Kansas
The Kansas State University will include educational curriculum for community members to learn to recognize, measure, evaluate, and recommend solutions to reduce pollutant loading into the Old Smoky River channel. They will hold workshops in water quality sampling, stormwater runoff, BMPs/stream bank stabilization methods/green infrastructure, and ending with identifying areas for BMPs which will lead to recommendations into a future restoration plan.
Award Amount: $ 60,000
Kentucky
University of Kentucky
Lexington, Kentucky
The University of Kentucky will engage grade school students, teachers and citizens within the watershed to increase understanding of water quality issues, science career opportunities, and promote urban stream restoration. The project will integrate with a nearby stream restoration project in a city-owned park and a 12-mile streamside walking/biking path in the watershed, presenting a unique opportunity for students and residents to become involved in watershed issues.
Award Amount: $59,934
Louisiana
Groundwork New Orleans
New Orleans, Louisiana
Groundwork New Orleans will use their Urban Waters grant to help transform vacant, underutilized land into an educational demonstration project called The Green Slice, based in the Lower Ninth Ward. The Green Slice will be designed as a demonstration and interdisciplinary research site for water management and water quality improvement, impacting local urban watersheds and developing tools for experiential learning and neighborhood-based outreach.
Award Amount: $59,824
Maryland
Civic Works
Baltimore, Maryland
Civic Works will educate residents in the Patapsco watershed about the benefits of making water-related improvements to their homes through innovative methods such as homeowner-hosted neighborhood meetings and will train community members to perform water retrofits through its B'more Green three-month training program where individuals learn how to reduce a home's water consumption and storm water runoff through installation of various upgrades.
Award Amount: $60,000
Massachusetts
Groundwork Lawrence
Lawrence, Massachusetts
Groundwork Lawrence is proposing to take its successful approach of converting ‘brownfields’ into parks and open space to focus on citizen stewardship and water quality restoration of the Spicket River. It will bring together the “Spicket River Restoration Partnership” to engage the community through citizen volunteers (Volunteer River Restoration Corps) for water quality testing to establish a water quality baseline and to further characterize the environmental condition of the river. This project will identify stream channel issues and harmful contamination threats such as stormwater infrastructure and combined sewer overflows. As volunteers are engaged and water quality conditions are discussed with the city and state, further planning will identify necessary efforts to be undertaken by the Volunteer River Restoration Corps.
Award Amount: $60,000
Northern Middlesex Council of Governments (NMCOG)
Lowell, Massachusetts
Northern Middlesex Council of Governments will combine efforts with the Merrimack River Watershed Council and partners to be engaged to develop a stormwater education program to touch upon all the communities, neighborhoods and populations in the Merrimack River region and elsewhere in the Commonwealth. NMCOG and partners will develop a training and outreach program designed to educate community citizens, municipal staff and officials about the effects of stormwater on water quality and solutions available to individuals and communities. It will include educational workshops, trainings, and materials and media outlets.
Award Amount: $60,000
Minnesota
City of Duluth
Duluth, Minnesota
The City of Duluth proposes to develop a strategic action framework to help determine funding priorities with the St. Louis River Corridor. The project will work to improve water quality, in hopes of accelerating the removal of some of the nine beneficial use impairments of the Great Lakes Area of Concern (AOC). It will bring together community planning projects that have already taken place into one integrated platform to help guide future green infrastructure and restoration efforts, protect natural resources, and set funding priorities so that development, restoration and delisting of the AOC can all proceed in an organized fashion together.
Award Amount: $60,000
Missouri
Southern Illinois University – Edwardsville
St. Louis, Missouri
The Southern Illinois University – Edwardsville will evaluate the effectiveness of site scale green infrastructure facilities on reducing flows in combined sewers and to develop a protocol program of community outreach and public education on green infrastructure.
Award Amount: $59,876
Montana
Gallatin Local Water Quality District
Gallatin, Montana
The Gallatin Local Water Quality District will establish an integrated stream monitoring program in the East Gallatin River-Bozeman and Bozeman Creek watersheds, in the greater Gallatin watershed, for the purpose of evaluating water quality conditions long-term as part of a larger, planned District-wide monitoring program.
Award Amount: $ 60,000
Nebraska
University of Nebraska – Lincoln
Omaha, Nebraska
The University of Nebraska – Lincoln will establish a living laboratory to monitor and assess the effectiveness of green infrastructure strategies and education, develop an innovative, science-based, mobile education application to educate stakeholders, and promote community involvement and multi-organizational partnerships through an integrated research-education outreach model.
Award Amount: $56,517
New Jersey
Ironbound Community Corporation
Newark, New Jersey
The Ironbound Community Corporation plans to engage and educate residents, offer free river tours and walkshops, plan riverfront programs, a “RiverDay” and workshops, create a “Back to the River” brochure and map including key access points and riverfront parks and post on-line.
Award Amount: $60,000
New Mexico
New Mexico BASS Chapter Federation
Roswell, New Mexico
The New Mexico BASS Chapter Federation proposes to restore the Spring River Pond to a children’s fishery using natural methods. The project intends to accelerate research in golden algae management and increase awareness of the impact of invasive aquatic species.
Award Amount: $60,000
New York
Hudson River Sloop Clearwater, Inc.
Dutchess County, New York
The Hudson River Sloop Clearwater, Inc will design and implement a signage program to educate and inspire their communities, train local youth in the foundations of watershed science and green infrastructure technology so that they can apply this knowledge by designing and implementing a green infrastructure project.
Award Amount: $59,855
Groundwork Hudson Valley
Yonkers, New York
Groundwork Hudson Valley plans to create a “laboratory” for urban waters projects nationwide. Building a community stewardship of people who live and work along the river will ensure that the water in the neighborhood and the park will be “safe and touchable” and that the people living in environmental justice (EJ) areas understand the challenges facing the river.
Award Amount: $51,401
Rocking the Boat
Bronx, New York
Making practical use of its growing fleet of student-built wooden boats, Rocking the Boat’s Bronx River Education Through Restoration engages local students and members of the general public in hands-on restoration, monitoring, and educational activities both on and around the Bronx River. Through this work, Rocking the Boat is simultaneously helping to revitalize the South Bronx community and the River that runs through it. Project activities will include water quality monitoring and conducting aquatic habitat surveys.
Award Amount: $60,000
North Carolina
Ellerbe Creek Watershed Association
Durham, North Carolina
The Ellerbe Creek Watershed Association will build a collaborative partnership with residents, American Rivers, the stormwater utility, other local government agencies, and the USDA Extension agency to improve water quality in Ellerbe Creek and Falls Lake, a public drinking water source. The project will develop a green infrastructure plan in the most urban areas of the city, quantify the pollution reductions that could be achieved through green infrastructure, and provide training and assistance on green infrastructure and low impact development techniques that can protect and improve water quality in the watershed.
Award Amount: $59,927
Land of Sky Regional Council
Brevard, North Carolina
Land of Sky Regional Council will build stewardship within the Rosenwald neighborhood through education, hands-on activities, identification of water quality concerns, and the development of a watershed action plan. The project builds on a U.S. Housing and Urban Development Sustainable Communities Initiative to work with the community through an environmental education program, a recreation and access planning process, and a water quality monitoring program to engage local high school students in environmental careers.
Award Amount: $60,000
Ohio
Cleveland Botanical Garden
Cleveland, Ohio
This project seeks to provide neighborhood stabilization, and/or reduce maintenance costs associated with vacant land. Different mixtures of dredge material, compost, and wood chips will be placed on vacant test lots, planted with low-maintenance groundcover to act as bioswale, and monitored for improvements to soil nutrient content, bioavailable lead content, water infiltration, soil moisture, and plant establishment. The result will be reduced stormwater runoff, stabilized urban neighborhood vacant land, reduced soil lead (Pb) toxicity, and reduced municipal maintenance costs of vacant land.
Award Amount: $59,680
Oklahoma
State of Oklahoma, Oklahoma Secretary of the Environment
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
The State of Oklahoma will provide preliminary evaluation of two urban reservoirs (Lakes Hefner and Overholser) receiving extensive watershed Best Management Practice implementation. Project results will influence Oklahoma City’s decision to address the impaired beneficial uses within each of these offset reservoirs.
Award Amount: $60,000
Oregon
City of Florence
Florence, Oregon
The City of Florence will continue an EPA-funded Siuslaw Estuary Partnership Surface and Groundwater monitoring program for two years. The result of the project will provide protection of the North Florence sole source Dunal aquifer and protection and improvement of the water quality in Munsel and Ackerly creeks and the Siuslaw River.’
Award Amount: $60,000
City of Corvallis
Corvallis, Oregon
The City of Corvallis will conduct a comprehensive planning effort for ‘Green Streets’ as a mechanism to treat stormwater, develop alternative transportation routes, expand urban green space, and improve community health. ‘Green Streets’ collect non-point source pollution from city streets through filtration, detention, and evaporation of stormwater runoff before it enters into the Willamette River and the City’s urban streams.
Award Amount: $45,620
Columbia Slough Watershed Council (CSWC) – Wonders of Whitaker (WOW)
Portland, Oregon
Wonders of Whitaker (WOW) is an educational program in Portland, Oregon that engages minority, low-income, and indigenous student youth in the Columbia Slough Watershed. Students will take part in field science programs at Whitaker Ponds and along Whitaker Slough including water testing, aquatic macro invertebrate sampling, and natural history hikes. Using hands-on professional water testing kits, students will collect water from selected sites at the park and along the slough six times during each school year. Students will create water quality testing and reporting protocol and test the water for dissolved oxygen, PH, and turbidity. By following and tracing the stormwater running into the ponds and slough, they will learn about the connection between rainfall and stormwater runoff. Students will record and report their baseline data information to Oregon Stream Webs and the local community.
Award Amount: $60,000
Curry County Soil and Water Conservation District
Gold Beach, Oregon
The Curry County Soil and Water Conservation District will provide a scientific- based assessment of the Rogue River Estuary; educate and engage the local community in a continuing education class at the local community college; monitor water and environmental quality; and convene a community/agency Estuary Team to use the assessments in developing a community-driven restoration plan for the Rogue River Estuary.
Award Amount: $59,400
Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania Horticultural Society
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
The Pennsylvania Horticultural Society will provide focused information and training to a variety of constituencies with land management interests/responsibilities within the Tookany/Tacony Frankford watershed to build interest and provide skills needed to implement and maintain simple storm water green infrastructure projects. This project will encourage the development of more green infrastructure within the watershed, further community beautification efforts, increase capacity of a variety of constituencies to implement and maintain green infrastructure, and ultimately contribute to improved water quality and community involvement.
Award Amount: $58,000
Temple University
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
The University's Center for Sustainable Communities will develop a storm water management plan for three urban watersheds that will identify and prioritize storm water improvements to mitigate water quality problems and flooding problems that underserved residents have been facing for many years. Using environmental justice as an overarching theoretical framework, this project will use mixed methods, community engagement, and a watershed-wide multi-municipal planning approach.
Award Amount: $60,000
Puerto Rico
ENLACE
San Juan, Puerto Rico
ENLACE will promote an understanding of the environmental degradation of an estuarine tidal channel and will continue to engage the community in its restoration and in claiming their right to a healthy environment through education for critical consciousness and democratic action.
Award Amount: $60,000
Rhode Island
The Environmental Justice League of Rhode Island
Providence, Rhode Island
The Environmental Justice League of Rhode Island (EJLRI) will team up with experienced social-environmental community organizations (Urban Pond Procession and Groundwork Providence), who will continue efforts to creatively engage Reservoir Triangle’s neighborhood residents through educational and training initiatives to generate citizen energy for restoring water quality in Mashapaug Pond, the last remaining natural pond in Providence, RI. The project will involve community assessments to understand stormwater impacts to the pond by building on previous coalitions built to clean-up the Gorham Silver Manufacturing site. Homeowners and school children will learn about stormwater pollution sources at home and receive hands-on education about residential and neighborhood stormwater practices that homeowners can employ.. The project also includes hands-on activities to educate community members and youth on best practices for stormwater management.
Award Amount: $60,000
Wood-Pawcatuck Watershed Association
Providence, Rhode Island
This project involves developing a fish community monitoring program for three wadeable urban rivers and tributaries, the Moshasshuck River, Woonasquatucket River and the Blackstone River, flowing through urban areas around Providence, RI. Existing historic fish and water quality data will be assembled and analyzed to establish baseline data, develop urban river habitat assessments and identify areas where no previous information is available. The project will identify issues and related urban conditions and then target locations for water quality restoration actions. It will engage the urban community to provide citizen-scientist education program(s), develop a monitoring protocol for volunteer monitoring procedures and to hold workshops to provide volunteer training for long term monitoring.
Award Amount: $57,000
South Carolina
Tennessee
Tennessee Environmental Council
Springhill, Tennessee
Tennessee Environmental Council will establish a stakeholder group to develop a watershed action plan partnering with the local municipal storm sewer system to promote low impact development and green infrastructure techniques in the community to address community priorities such as economic development and water quality restoration. Once the action plan has been developed, the applicant will hold workshops for residents, school groups, businesses and other stakeholders regarding watershed assessment and protection.
Award Amount: $ 56999.75
Texas
Galveston Bay Foundation
Galveston Bay, Texas
The Galveston Bay Foundation will provide partners with best management practice information and tools to contribute to lowering their bacteria inputs to the Bay. The project will also produce volunteer water quality monitoring data to augment professional data and aid in identifying problem areas and quantifying progress towards water quality improvements.
Award Amount: $ 60,000
Upper Colorado River Authority
San Angelo, Texas
The Upper Colorado River Authority (UCRA) plans to conduct a bacteria source tracking study that will be conducted cooperatively with the Department of Physics and Geoscience at Angelo State University (a certified Hispanic serving institution). In partnership with the San Angelo Independent School District (SAISD), UCRA plans to develop a Water Stewardship Program targeted to schools with lower socioeconomic populations and refine a Watersheds and Nonpoint Source Curriculum Program for all SAISD 7th graders.
Award Amount: $57,000
Utah
Salt Lake County Division of Flood Control and Water Quality, Watershed Planning and Restoration Department
Salt Lake City, Utah
Salt Lake County proposes to improve water quality, support community revitalization, educate the community, and engage and empower some of Salt Lake County’s lowest-income residents through two connected programs. Program 1 utilizes the Center for Documentary Expression and Arts’ “Exhibits That Teach” program to establish school and community-based education outreach efforts in Salt Lake City's Fairpark neighborhood. Program 2 utilizes a “Quick Response” (QR) code and Smartphone app technology to bring education information, developed through Project 1 efforts, to the fingertips of thousand of Salt Lake County residents. The project’s goal is to promote behavioral changes that will positively impact water quality by increasing local residents’ awareness of the watershed, and by engaging and empowering them to make those changes.
Award Amount: $60,000
Virginia
City of Richmond
Richmond, Virginia
The City of Richmond will assist the residents of Bellemeade Creek watershed to form a coalition of active stakeholders that will work to restore the creek and make it a key asset of a new community school and provide for recreational use by all residents. Additional objectives of this project include supporting the coalition in developing a detailed Watershed Action Agenda that outlines agency/organizational leads, funding commitments, and phasing and building the coalition's capacity to effectively shepherd implementation and stewardship beyond the life of the grant.
Award amount: $59,671
Washington
Port Townsend Marine Science Society
Port Townsend, Washington
The Port Townsend Marine Science Society proposes to collect data that will further our understanding of the various pathways and fates of toxic pollution in Puget Sound and to develop a permanent educational exhibit, “Toxics in the Marine Environment” at the Port Townsend Marine Science Center (PTMSC).
Award Amount: $56,848
West Virginia
Friends of Deckers Creek
Morgantown, West Virginia
The Friends of Deckers Creek will initiate a public education campaign to educate residents, business owners, and the economic development community about the pollution issues and the economic potential of a restored Deckers Creek and to design and initiate a study of the mine that is polluting the creek that will ultimately be used to advance eventual construction of a treatment plant to address acid mine drainage.
Award Amount: $55, 600
Wisconsin
Bay-Lake Regional Planning Commission
Green Bay, Wisconsin
Bay-Lake Regional Planning Commission will perform water quality monitoring at Bay Beach in Green Bay, Wisconsin to identify pollution sources. Monitoring results will drive the development of a restoration action plan that includes an engineering plan for beach redesign to mitigate the issues.
Award Amount: $ 59,995
University of Wisconsin – La Crosse
Crosse County, Wisconsin
University of Wisconsin – La Crosse will establish a monitoring program for water quality and biota to examine bioavailability, toxicity, and spatial mobilization of lead in marsh sediments within this urban wetland ecosystem. The project will create and strengthen partnerships between local marsh stakeholders through community outreach and educational programs.
Award Amount: $59, 979
Wyoming
Washakie County Conservation District
Worland, Wyoming
The Washakie County Conservation District will work toward retrofitting the existing storm water system within the City of Worland. The objective of this project is to complete an assessment of the City of Worland's stormwater infrastructure and to use the options for suitable Best Management Practices (BMPs) to complete an implementation plan to retrofit the system.
Award Amount: $60,000