Buzzards Bay National Estuary Program

Home    BBNEP Info    Town Information    Pollution    Living Resources    Watershed Info    Enjoy Buzzards Bay    Technical Info    Special Topics

Home  >   BB NEP Information > Funding

Grants & Other Funding Opportunities

Award Announcements  |  All Grants Awarded  |  Grants Received  |  Other Funding Opportunities |  Engineering Services Sought: Westport, MA

Fall 2008 Municipal Grants Announced

This fall, as part of our federal grant, the Buzzards Bay NEP requested proposals from Buzzards Bay municipalities for projects to protect and restore water quality and living resources in Buzzards Bay and its surrounding watershed. Through the Massachusetts Coastal Zone Management office and the Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs, the BBNEP announced the award of $131,000 in grants to seven Buzzards Bay watershed municipalities. Read this EEA municipal grant press release to learn more.

The request for grant proposals is still posted on the state procurement website Comm-Pass (search "Buzzards").

Purpose of the RFR: "The Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs (EOEEA), through the Buzzards Bay National Estuary Program in the Massachusetts Office of Coastal Zone Management (CZM), announces that funding is available to assist eligible Buzzards Bay watershed municipalities in the protection of open space, rare and endangered species habitat, and freshwater and saltwater wetlands; to help restore tidally restricted salt marshes, to develop designs and remediate stormwater discharges threatening water quality, to provide support for mapping stormwater drainage networks, to construct pump-out facilities, to update town parcel data, to digitize wetland boundaries approved in permits, to assist in the monitoring of water quality to prioritize stormwater remediation, to address problems in migratory fish passage, and to implement other recommendations contained in the watershed management plan for Buzzards Bay. This work is being conducted in accordance with a Cooperative Agreement with the US EPA using federal funds and state funds recently provided by the legislature."

Read the cover letter to the municipalities.

Eligible Respondents to our Grant Programs

Unless otherwise specified in an RFR, eligible municipalities include Fall River, Westport, Dartmouth, New Bedford, Acushnet, Fairhaven, Rochester, Mattapoisett, Marion, Wareham, Middleborough, Carver, Plymouth, Bourne, Falmouth, and Gosnold. However, specific restoration and protection projects must lie principally within the Buzzards Bay watershed (see map below). For participation in the stormwater program, the discharge must be contributing to an existing impairment.

Municipalities must submit separate application forms for each grant proposal. Municipalities may submit any number of applications in any grant category. However, no single project award can exceed $35,000, and no municipality may be awarded more than $50,000 through this solicitation. Municipalities may submit applications in partnership with other public or private organizations, or subcontract tasks, however, contracts will be awarded only to municipalities.

Application Information

To view our solicitation, and to download the forms, go to www.comm-pass.com. On the search for solicitations page type "Buzzards Bay Watershed" on the keyword line, and on the 4th line down select "open" in the document status pull down box, then click the "search" button. A results line will appear "1 documents match your search." Click on this. (Sorry there is no hard link, this is a dynamic link website.)

To save you time, below are copies of the RFR (opening in their own browser window) as a MSWord document (you can type in your responses and proposal information in the document). If you need additional Commonwealth forms, use the COMMPASS website link above.

Download the Summer 2008 RFR as Microsoft Word document (type your responses directly in the document)

Eligible uses of funds

Below is an overview of projects eligible for funding in our last grant round. Refer to the RFR for additional details.

• 1) Stormwater Remediation Designs
• 2) Implementation and construction of existing stormwater designs.
• 3) Stormwater Mapping Support
• 4) Wetland-Open Space-Habitat Restoration, Preservation, Acquisition or Protection Grants
• 5) Town Parcel GIS Data Acquisition or Update or digitizing of Wetland Boundaries from wetland permits
• 6) Migratory Fish Passage and Habitat Restoration
• 7) Water quality testing in support for establishing priorities for stormwater remediation
• 8) Construction of a boat pump-out facility in a municipality or harbor where none exists.
• 9) Creation of online reporting systems for the tracking the Operation, Maintenance, and
• 10) Other activities in support of the Buzzards Bay Management Plan.

Questions Received and Responses to the Summer 2008 Round

Questions received (which may be paraphrased), and tentative answers to those questions.

Question 1: Does the proximity of a land protection project to Buzzards Bay have an affect on its eligibility for this grant program?

Response to Question 1: All land acquisition projects, regardless of their location within the watershed, are eligible for consideration under this grant program. Preference will be given to projects that meet the goals of the CCMP, such as those that protect wetlands, wetland habitat, water quality (including ground water), endangered species habitat, or wetland or aquatic species, as stated in the RFR.

Recent Previous Awards

March 2008 municipal grant awards

Spring 2007 municipal grant awards

Fall 2006 minigrant awards.

Suggestions for applying for other grants

All BB NEP grants, and grants solicitations issued by other state agencies, are posted on the state's Comm-Pass system. If you check the Comm-Pass website regularly, you will be informed of grant opportunities from the Buzzards Bay NEP and other Commonwealth of Massachusetts agencies.

The Buzzards Bay NEP provides technical support to municipalities within our watershed, and may also provide technical support outside our watershed depending on staff availability and transferability of the project.


Is your town having trouble finding match for environmental grants? Match Buzzards Bay NEP or CZM CPR grants with funding from other sources, like Massachusetts Environmental Trust. CZM grants and MET funds are state funds and can be used to match federally funded grant programs like the Buzzards Bay NEP's or Massachusetts DEP's 319 NPS program.

Click on the link Other Funding Opportunities for funding opportunities in other agency programs.

---