Helene Debris Recovery Disposal Grant
NCDEQ received grant funding from EPA to provide grants to local governments and NGOs in Western North Carolina to help communities shorten timeframes and/or fund remaining Hurricane Helene solid waste disaster debris clean-up and removal projects that are not covered by Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) or other funding sources.
The application period will be open from June 15, 2026, through September 14, 2026. For more information, please contact Chris Hollinger at (919) 707-8284, or Jason Watkins at (336) 776-9674
For more information on Hurricane Helene recovery resources such as grant development support, project structuring, funding navigation, and more, visit: www.deq.nc.gov/wnc-recovery
Other Funding Opportunities
The Helene Debris Recovery Disposal Grant opportunity is part of a larger $61 million NCDEQ grant from EPA that also includes funding to assist with recycling infrastructure recovery, pesticide removal, and brownfields development. Visit the NCDEQ Hazardous Waste Management State Program Support Grant webpage and the NDEQ Hurricane Helene Response webpage for more information.
Frequently Asked Questions
Local governments (defined as counties, municipalities, councils of governments) and non-governmental organizations (NGOSs), in counties with a Tropical Storm Helene FEMA disaster declaration (D-4827). A full list of these counties is provided in the RFP.
Grant funds may be used for solid waste debris collection, storage, reduction, and final disposal (if not covered by FEMA); non-hazardous waste collection and disposal; clearing, management, and disposal of non-hazardous waste from shorelines, floodplains, farmland, animal mortality sites, compost management sites, residential clean-up sites, state and local park lands.
Grant funds may not be used for employee salaries, administrative expenses such as overhead, utility costs, contracted collections costs, and/or payment for other contracted cleanup or disposal services.
A total of $18 million is available through this grant program. Applicants may request any amount up to $3 million per proposal. Only one proposal will be accepted per eligible entity.
Applicants may combine funding requests for multiple types of projects into one proposal. Joint proposals, in which multiple local governments or a local government and an NGO partner on a project, are encouraged.
No, but the grantee is responsible for covering any project costs that exceed the awarded grant amount or fall outside the list of eligible expenses.
All awarded projects are subject to applicable federal requirements that pass down to the grantee as a subrecipient of EPA funding.
Additional information is available on the WNC Recovery Grants Program webpage.