319 Grant Program

A map of projects and an overview of the 319 grant program in North Carolina.

Through Section 319(h) of the Clean Water Act, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency provides states with funding to reduce nonpoint source pollution. North Carolina typically receives around $1 million for competitive funding of watershed restoration projects. Funds may be used to conduct watershed restoration projects such as stormwater and agricultural best management practices and restoration of impaired streams. Section 319 grant projects must be used to help restore waterbodies currently impaired by nonpoint source pollution in areas with approved watershed restoration plans. (map) (list)

State and local governments, interstate and intrastate agencies, public and private nonprofit organizations, and educational institutions are all eligible to apply for 319 funding. An interagency workgroup reviews the proposals and selects those of merit to be funded.  

Subscribe to the NC 319 Listserv to receive all RFP release information, application details, and program announcements.

The North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ), Division of Water Resources (DWR) is soliciting proposals for Clean Water Act-Section 319 (h) Nonpoint Source Grant Funding for Fiscal Year 2023 for projects that implement a DWR-approved watershed restoration plan to restore the water quality of waters impaired by nonpoint source (NPS) pollution. Funds are provided by the US Environmental Protection Agency pursuant to Section 319(h) of the Clean Water Act. State and local governments, interstate agencies, public and private nonprofit organizations including academic institutions, and state-recognized tribes are eligible to apply. Applications are now open and due by midnight on May 4, 2023

• FY2023 319 RFP final
• FY2023 319 Review Criteria
• FY2023 319 Application

• Late January: Request for Proposals released
• Early May: 319 Grant Application deadline
• Early June: Applicants notified whether they will be invited for in-person interviews
• Late June: Notified applicants interviewed in Raleigh; selected projects announced
• January of following year: Projects may start (estimated, depending on grant award date to NCDEQ and time for contract preparation)

All selected 319 grant projects are required to submit quarterly reports along with invoices in order to receive reimbursement. In addition, project contractors should note that they must submit the final invoice for the project within 45 days of contract expiration in order to be reimbursed. At the expiration of the 319 Grant Project, project contractors must submit a final report, to include all project data, findings, maps, monitoring and photographs. Please see links below for further information on these required reporting products:

• Quarterly Report Template (Updated)
• Invoice Template (Updated)
• Extension Request Form (Updated)
• Final Report Template (Updated)
• Load Reduction Report Template (New)

If you are writing a 9-Element Plan for the first time, please refer to the following presentation, Introduction to the 9 Elements of a Watershed Restoration Plan. The 319 grant program recommends developing plans at the scale of a 12-digit HUC or smaller watershed. Previously approved 9-Element plans that cover a larger watershed remain eligible for 319 grant funding, but must evidence knowledge of local watershed issues where proposed project is located when applying.

Qualities of good 9-Element plans include:

• Being succinct but comprehensive
• Using maps to clearly show political and watershed boundaries
• Organizing the plan in subsections like watershed overview, pollution causes and sources, management measures and evaluation criteria
• Including a few specific projects that are "shovel-ready" 
• Using tables to organize the following information:
  • Pollution causes and sources, and the management measures designed to address them
  • Indicators of how you will measure the impact of management measures on pollution sources
  • Costs and technical assistance needed to implement management measures

Two plans that particularly exemplify these qualities:
Fines Creek Watershed Action Plan 
East Fork -- South Fork New River Watershed Plan (written using a 205(j) grant)

A primary objective of the 319 Grant program is to enable actors statewide to successfully recover the quality of their local waterbodies, to restore them to fully support their intended uses. Nonpoint source impairments are generally very challenging to reverse. When watershed restoration initiatives do achieve success, it is important to share their stories with others. The following stories feature waterbodies identified as being primarily nonpoint source-impaired and having achieved documented water quality improvements through restoration efforts. These projects have received funding from EPA Section 319 (h) Nonpoint Source (NPS) Pollution Control Grant Program, and in many cases, other funding sources dedicated to solving nonpoint source impairments. These success stories demonstrate the achievement of water quality standards (and removal from North Carolina’s section 303 (d) list of impaired waters) for one or more pollutants. In addition, these stories also capture the innovative strategies used, resources leveraged and the multi-stakeholder partnerships required to repair the degraded waterbodies.

2020

2019

2018

2017

2016

2015

2014

319 Grant Administrator
Rishi Bastakoti
rishi.bastakoti@ncdenr.gov
(919) 707-3623

Nonpoint Source Planning Branch Chief
Rich Gannon
rich.gannon@ncdenr.gov
(919) 707-3673