The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Chesapeake Bay Program Office (CBPO) is announcing a Request for Applications (RFA) for applicants to provide the Chesapeake Bay Program (CBP) non-federal partners with support for further expanding the capacity of citizen based and nontraditional environmental monitoring programs and integrating these programs into the CBP partnership’s existing monitoring networks.

Citizen-based monitoring programs are routine environmental data collection efforts carried out by volunteers and overseen and coordinated by a given organization. Nontraditional monitoring programs are defined here as routine environmental data collection carried out by a given organization or agency and may include local governments, conservation districts, or nongovernmental organizations (academia, river basin commissions, watershed organizations, etc.) that are currently not formally part of the CBP partnership’s existing monitoring networks. Expanding capacity of citizen-based and nontraditional partner monitoring programs will enable more partner organizations to conduct monitoring that can be utilized by the CBP partnership and its members to address CBP programmatic data gaps.

This RFA is seeking cost-effective applications from eligible applicants for providing the CBP non-federal partners with support for expanding capacity of citizen science and nontraditional monitoring programs and integrating these programs into the CBP partnerships’ tidal and watershed monitoring networks using regionally consistent protocols supporting existing and developing information needs.

The state- and EPA-funded CBP partnership water quality and biological resource monitoring programs and networks include:

• The Chesapeake Bay tidal water quality monitoring program with 161 long-term water quality monitoring stations sampled annually at a biweekly to monthly frequency for a suite of physical, chemical, and biological parameters; 
• The Chesapeake Bay tidal benthic macroinvertebrate monitoring program;
• The Chesapeake Bay tidal water submerged aquatic vegetation aerial survey and ground truth monitoring program; 
• The Chesapeake Bay river input monitoring program on the nine major tributaries to the Chesapeake Bay;
• The Chesapeake Bay watershed non-tidal water quality monitoring network of 115 stations sampled on average 20 times per year for chemical conditions and coordinated with real-time stream and river flow monitoring across a wide range of watershed sizes; and,
• Coordination of citizen science monitoring groups sampling for water quality and benthic macroinvertebrates.

Funding Information

• The U.S EPA Chesapeake Bay Program Office plans to award one cooperative agreement under this RFA. Funding for the activity is approximately $450,000 to $500,000 annually for FY2021 through FY2026, depending on funding availability, satisfactory performance, and other applicable considerations. The total estimated funding for six years is approximately $2,700,000 to $3,000,000.
• The expected project period for the cooperative agreement is six years, with funding provided on an annual basis. No commitment of funding can be made beyond the first year. The expected start date for the award resulting from this RFA is May 08, 2021.

Eligibility Criteria

Nonprofit organizations, state and local governments, colleges, universities, and interstate agencies are eligible to submit applications in response to this RFA. For-profit organizations are not eligible to submit applications in response to this RFA.

For more information, visit Grants.gov.