Statewide - Eligibility Guidelines for Water Quality Improvement Project Program Grants for Restoration and Flood Risk Reduction through the Removal or Repair of Municipal[...]

Public Notice

Eligibility Guidelines for Water Quality Improvement Project Program Grants for Restoration and Flood Risk Reduction through the Removal or Repair of Municipal Dams; Enhancing Aquatic Connectivity through Dam Removal and Culvert Replacement; and Fish and Wildlife Habitat Acquisition, Restoration and Enhancement Projects.

The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (NYS DEC) developed the following eligibility guidelines to allocate funding to support projects funded through the Water Quality Improvement Project (WQIP) grant program under the Clean Water, Clean Air and Green Jobs Environmental Bond Act of 2022 (Bond Act). WQIP is a competitive, statewide grant program to implement projects that directly improve water quality or aquatic habitat, promote flood risk reduction, restoration, and enhanced flood and climate resiliency, or protect a drinking water source. This funding is for construction/implementation projects. NYS DEC will use feedback on these draft eligibility guidelines to modify existing grant programs or develop new grant programs.

Removal or Repair of Municipal Dams

Dams often serve as critical infrastructure to attenuate flooding, secure water supplies, and help generate energy, among other important functions. However, New York State has hundreds of high-risk dams that no longer perform a beneficial function as intended and if they were to fail, could cause significant damage. Further, engineering experts have determined that nearly half of the municipally owned dams in New York do not meet the State's rigorous safety standards.

In addition, aging dams with degraded structural integrity are more likely to sustain damage during heavy rains, posing a threat to human life and property. Many aging dams also no longer serve a useful purpose and would benefit communities and ecosystems if removed. More than ever, streamlined dam removal and improvement processes and funding are required to safeguard public safety and environmental health.

In New York State, municipalities own 215 High Hazard and 166 Intermediate Hazard dams - designations noting potential damage to public safety and infrastructure if a dam were to fail. This grant program will reduce flood risks and restore environmental connections through the removal, repair, rehabilitation, and modernization of dams.

New York may work with communities or Indian Nations to leverage Bond Act funds to secure Federal Emergency Management Agency Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities and Hazard Mitigation Grant Program funds, or other federal funds, for dam removal or rehabilitation.

Eligible projects include:
• Projects to improve dam safety thru the removal or repair of dams
o that provide flood attenuation; and
o have a downstream hazard classification of Class C (High) and Class B (Intermediate).
• Projects that reduce a hazard condition and result in a safe impoundment structure that meets Dam Safety criteria as identified in NYS DEC's Guidelines for Design of Dams: (https://extapps.dec.ny.gov/docs/water_pdf/damguideli.pdf) and other sound engineering principles.
• Project listed in the County or State approved Hazard Mitigation Plan.
• Projects with an up-to-date Emergency Action Plan (EAP).

Eligible applicants include a municipality as defined in ECL Article 58: "a local public authority or public benefit corporation, a county, city, town, village, school district, supervisory district, district corporation, improvement district within a county, city, town or village, or Indian Nation or tribe recognized by the State or the United States with a reservation wholly or partly within the boundaries of New York State, or any combination thereof."

Aquatic Connectivity - Dam Removal and Culvert Replacement

Eligible projects include:
Culvert repair, right sizing, and replacement, and dam removal to provide aquatic connectivity, abate floods, reduce erosion, and protect infrastructure.

Culvert repair or replacement projects:
• Must be designed, at a minimum, to meet New York State Department of Transportation's (NYSDOT) Highway Design Manual Chapter 8 for culverts and NYS DEC's Technical Guidance #2 (DFW GS 24-01);
• Must be inspected by a Licensed Professional Engineer and determined to be hydraulically insufficient and not conforming to New York State Department of Transportation's (NYS DOT) Culvert Design standards (i.e., Highway Design Manual Chapter 8) and New York State DEC's Technical Guidance #2 (DFW GS 24-01);
• Must be evaluated hydrologically and hydraulically (H&H) by a licensed professional engineer using HEC-RAS, HY-8 or other comparable modeling;
• Must be evaluated using the North Atlantic Aquatic Connectivity Collaborative (NAACC) protocol to determine severity of existing aquatic organism passage constriction and document improvement to aquatic organism passage post construction. When this methodology is not possible, professional judgement will be used to assess a structure that most closely replicates the categories used by NAACC;
• Must raise the NAACC passability score such that the associated descriptor level will change/improve; and
• Will remove impediments to fish and/or other aquatic organisms caused by the existing stream crossing and will result in benefits to an identified species of management concern including Species of Greatest Conservation Need or Federal trust species.

Dam removal for the primary purposes of reducing flooding and improving aquatic connectivity and removing impediments to aquatic organism passage while also (1) improving water quality (e.g., reducing thermal impacts and/or harmful algal bloom occurrences), (2) eliminating a downstream flood hazard by addressing a structure that is deficient in structural stability or spillway capacity, derelict and/or un-safe and poses a threat to public health and safety, if unexpectedly breached, or (3) eliminating a potentially hazardous dam with a condition rating of unsound or unsafe.

Dam removal projects:
• Must be evaluated by a licensed professional engineer using HEC-RAS or other comparable H&H modeling to determine upstream and downstream changes in water surface and base flood elevations;
• Should not increase ecological risk from invasive species accessing new habitat (e.g., lamprey), adversely impact endangered/threatened species habitat or significantly impact upstream wetlands;
• Must be identified in a flood study, such as a Resilient NY Study, local or County hazard mitigation plan and determined to be a cause of flooding; and
• Removal of impediments to fish and/or other aquatic organisms caused by the dam should:
o address watershed basin habitat restoration priorities or target species restoration priorities as identified by a New York State DEC-approved watershed implementation plan or DEC Watershed Action Agenda,
o provide access to critical habitat identified in a Federal or State Management Plan, DEC-approved watershed implementation plan, or DEC Watershed Action Agenda, or
o provide benefit(s) to an identified species of management concern including Species of Greatest Conservation Need or Federal trust species.

Eligible applicants: municipalities as defined in New York State Environmental Conservation Law Article 58, including Indian Nations, state agencies, soil and water conservation districts, and not-for-profits, and private owners partnered with other eligible entities.

Fish and Wildlife Habitat Acquisition, Restoration and Enhancement Projects

New York's fish and wildlife resources have tremendous economic, ecological, recreational, and intrinsic value but are often threatened by habitat loss and/or impairment. This program will provide funding for projects that will, as their primary goal, conserve, protect, restore, and/or enhance important fish and wildlife habitat.

Eligible projects include, but are not limited to:
• Fish and wildlife habitat protection projects, including acquisition of fee title and easements, intended to conserve the lands and waters of the state of ecological significance or any part thereof;
• Wetland, stream, floodplain, and riparian corridor/buffer restoration and enhancement projects including but not limited to:
o removal of historic fill;
o revegetation of degraded wetland habitats and buffers;
o restoration of wetland hydrology;
o reestablishment or enhancement of wetland or benthic topography to create shallow water vegetated habitats (e.g., SAV beds);
o installation of in-stream/in-channel habitat structures, features, and improvements using natural channel design principles;
o restoration or enhancement of natural channel sinuosity;
o installation of fish passage structures;
o restoration or enhancement of riparian buffers; and
• Forest, grassland, shrubland, and habitat connectivity conservation and restoration.

Eligible applicants: municipalities as defined in NYS Environmental Conservation Law Article 58, state agencies, non-profits, Indian Nations, Soil and Water Conservation Districts.

The Bond Act requires that disadvantaged communities shall receive no less than 35 percent, with the goal of 40 percent, of the benefit of total Bond Act funds ($4.2 billion). Disadvantaged communities are those identified by the Climate Justice Working Group, pursuant to the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act: https://climate.ny.gov/Resources/Disadvantaged-Communities-Criteria. Consistent with this Bond Act requirement, NYS DEC will aim to prioritize 40 percent of grant awards benefit disadvantaged communities.

Public comments on the guidelines are to be submitted in writing to the contact listed below and will be accepted until Friday, April 26, 2024, at 5:00 p.m.

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