Funding

Deadline passed as of August 11, 2016. Deadline for 2017 unknown. EPA's Office of Water supports the National Tribal Water Council (NTWC), composed of tribal governmental representatives, to increase communications, promote sharing of technical information and best management practices for Indian country, raise awareness of tribes on priority water issues, and facilitate tribal input on actions to protect water quality and provide safe drinking water in tribal communities. EPA supports the efforts of the National Tribal Water Council through a multi-year cooperative agreement to a recipient who manages and supports the operations of the Council, and assists in developing and completing products in coordination with the NTWC. Eligible recipients interested in managing the NTWC under this cooperative agreement may apply by submitting applications to EPA for this competitive process.

Deadline Passed. Most recent deadline: March 31, 2023. This RFA announces the availability of funds and solicits applications from eligible applicants that are interested in acting as the Puget Sound Climate Resilient Riparian Systems Lead. The overall goal is to establish an innovative and collaborative riparian conservation program that provides financial incentives for landowners to set aside and restore riparian areas important for salmon recovery, while successfully implementing approaches to climate resiliency and riparian conservation that become a robust and sustainable program.

Recent Deadline: 1/29/2021 EPA provides GAP financial and technical assistance to tribal governments and intertribal consortia to assist tribes in planning, developing, and establishing the capacity to implement federal environmental programs administered by the EPA and to assist in implementation of tribal solid and hazardous waste programs in accordance with applicable provisions of law, including the Solid Waste Disposal Act (commonly known as the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, or RCRA). As described in the GAP Guiding Principles, this support promotes tribal government efforts to develop core environmental program capacities (administrative, financial management, information management, environmental baseline needs assessment, public education/communication, legal, and technical/analytical) and baseline capacities for media-specific programs (e.g., ambient air quality, water quality, managing waste, and other EPA-administered statutory programs).

Deadline passed. Most recent deadline: December 6, 2021. Under the Environmental Education Grants Program, EPA seeks grant applications from eligible applicants to support environmental education projects that promote environmental awareness and stewardship and help provide people with the skills to take responsible actions to protect the environment. This grant program provides financial support for projects that design, demonstrate, and/or disseminate environmental education practices, methods, or techniques. The total estimated funding for this competitive opportunity in U.S. EPA Region 10 is up to $300,000. The Region expects to award three or four grants for no less than $50,000, and no more than $100,000 each. Region 10 covers the states of Alaska (AK), Idaho (ID), Oregon (OR), and Washington (WA). View the Region 10 request for applications (RFA) here. 

Deadline: June 30, 2023. The new Environmental Justice Thriving Communities Grantmaking (EJ TCGM) Program is a competition to select multiple Grantmakers around the nation to reduce barriers to the federal grants application process communities face and increase the efficiency of the awards process for environmental justice grants. Grantmakers will design competitive application and submission processes, award environmental justice subgrants, implement a tracking and reporting system, provide resources and support to communities, all in collaboration with EPA’s Office of Environmental Justice and External Civil Rights. Apply on Grants.gov: https://www.grants.gov/web/grants/view-opportunity.html?oppId=346337

Deadline passed. Most recent deadline: February 15, 2023. The EPA is seeking applications proposing projects that inform the public about new or existing residential or community recycling programs; provide information about the recycled materials that are accepted as part of a residential or community recycling program that provides for the separate collection of residential solid waste from recycled material; and increases collection rates and decreases contamination in residential and community recycling programs. Projects will improve consumer recycling education with the goal of achieving separate collection of recycled material across the nation, maximizing the efficient reuse of materials, and identifying strategies that otherwise result in an increase in volume of recyclable materials. The EPA also recognizes and encourages applications that demonstrate evidence-based messaging and strategies associated with effective communication campaigns designed to increase prevention, reuse, repair, remanufacture, recycling, anaerobic digestion, and composting in communities and/or decrease contamination in the recycling stream. This approach to community-informed messaging goes beyond education only by emphasizing researching the audience, building trust, and reducing audience barriers while emphasizing benefits for desired action.

In addition, the EPA is seeking applications for recycling education and outreach projects that address environmental justice concerns and focus predominantly on addressing the disproportionate and adverse human health, environmental, climate-related and other cumulative impacts, as well as the accompanying economic challenges of such impacts, resulting from industrial, governmental, commercial and/or other actions that have affected and/or currently affect people/communities of color, low income, tribal, and indigenous populations, and if applicable, other vulnerable populations, such as the elderly, children, and those with pre-existing medical conditions. Apply here.

Past Deadline: November 13, 2020. The Local Foods, Local Places program will provide selected communities planning assistance that centers around a two-day community workshop. At the workshop, a team of experts will help community members develop an implementable action plan that promotes local food and neighborhood revitalization. Eligible applicants include local governments, Indian tribes, and nonprofit institutions and organizations proposing to work in a neighborhood, town, or city of any size anywhere in the United States. We expect that many of the communities we select will be economically challenged and in the early phases of their efforts to promote local foods and community revitalization.

Deadline passed. Most recent deadline: August 19, 2022. EPA’s new Clean School Bus Program is providing $500 million in funding to replace existing school buses with zero-emission and low-emission models. Beginning June 8 through August 10, EPA will be hosting a series of webinars on who is eligible, who is prioritized, and how to apply for the 2022 Clean School Bus Rebates. Learn more and apply here.

Submissions accepted on a rolling basis. The Clean Water Indian Set-Aside Grant Program (CWISA) provides funding to Indian tribes and Alaska Native Villages for wastewater infrastructure. The CWISA program is administered in cooperation with the Indian Health Service (IHS). The CWISA program provides funding for wastewater infrastructure to American Indian Tribes and Alaska Native Villages. Funds may be used for planning, design, and construction of wastewater collection and treatment systems. The CWISA program is administered by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in cooperation with the Indian Health Service (IHS) Sanitation Facilities Construction program. To be considered for CWISA program funding, tribes must identify their wastewater needs to the IHS Sanitation Deficiency System. EPA uses the IHS Sanitation Deficiency System priority lists to identify and select projects for CWISA program funding.

Deadline Passed 12/04/2017. Deadline for 2018 Unknown. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is soliciting applications from eligible applicants as described in Section III.A to provide training and technical assistance for small public water systems to help such systems achieve and maintain compliance with the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA), and to provide training and technical assistance for small publicly owned wastewater systems, communities served by onsite/decentralized wastewater systems, and private well owners to improve water quality under the Clean Water Act (CWA). Training and technical assistance activities provided to these systems, communities and private well owners should be made available nationally in rural and urban communities and to personnel of tribally- owned and operated systems.

Deadline varies based on individual grants. Section 106 of the Clean Water Act (CWA) authorizes EPA to provide financial assistance to states and eligible interstate agencies to establish and administer programs for the prevention, reduction, and elimination of water pollution. In 1987, Congress amended section 518(e) of the CWA to include provisions that allow EPA to treat an Indian tribe in a manner similar to a state (i.e., treatment in a manner similar to a state, or TAS) for the purpose of providing Section 106 funding.

Deadline: 2/5/2021. EPA provides Indian Environmental General Assistance Program (GAP) financial and technical assistance to tribal governments and intertribal consortia to assist tribes in planning, developing, and establishing the capacity to implement federal environmental programs administered by the EPA and to assist in implementation of tribal solid and hazardous waste programs in accordance with applicable provisions of law, including the Solid Waste Disposal Act (commonly known as the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, or RCRA. EPA administers this program in accordance with the statute, applicable federal regulations, including 40 CFR part 35, subpart B, and national guidance, including the Indian Environmental General Assistance Program Guidance on the Award and Management of General Assistance Agreements for Tribes and Intertribal Consortia (2013; hereafter GAP Guidance).

Applications are accepted on a rolling basis. This investment assistance will help communtiies and regions devise and implement long-term economic recovery strategies through a variety of non-construction and construction projects, as appropriate, to address economic challenges in areas where a Presidential declaration of a major disaster was issued under the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Act as a result of Hurricane Florence, Michael, and Lane, Typhoons Yutu and Mangkhut, and of wildfires, volcanic eruptions, earthquakes and other natural disasters occurring in calendar year 2018, and tornadoes and floods occuring in calendar year 2019.

Deadline: January 26, 2023 at 5 pm PST. EarthLab is looking to fund projects that demonstrate co-creation and partnership between community partners and University of Washington researchers, interdisciplinary collaboration, action at the intersection of climate (both mitigation and adaptation) & social justice, and the potential for growth of the project or partnership. The Innovation Grants Program has $300,000 available for the current funding cycle, with a maximum budget request of $75,000 per project. For more information and to apply, click here