n 2019, the PSC and the MB directed partners to focus resources on managing best management practices (BMPs) in the Chesapeake watershed in the context of future climate risk. They specifically requested that a long-term multi-agency partnership be formed to examine the vulnerability of BMPs to future climate conditions and to accelerate adoption of stormwater management practices that are appropriately adapted or designed to be resilient in the face of increasing rainfall volumes and intensities expected in the future.
Over the past two years, the USWG, in coordination with the CRWG and other partners, has made significant progress toward these objectives. Through the development of a series of reports and tools that help characterize the risks that climate change poses to stormwater infrastructure, several needs and specific initiatives have emerged as next steps to help local watershed managers effectively address their restoration and public safety functions under future climate conditions.
Activities 1-4 under this RFA reflect the USWG’s four recommendations to advance efforts to maintain the resilience of current stormwater BMPs and to advance stormwater management, design, and implementation practices that consider future climate and the intensity, duration, and frequency of precipitation (IDF curves). The agreement awarded under this funding opportunity will include the following Activities:
• Activity 1: Vulnerability Assessment Tool - Develop vulnerability assessment tools, including documentation of methods, that will enable communities to determine which of their residential and commercial areas, municipal assets, or green infrastructure such as ponds or habitats are most vulnerable to future flooding risks and devise strategies to minimize these risks;
• Activity 2: Decision Support Tool - Develop a memorandum that outlines specific processes to improve local capacity to identify and select the most cost-effective risk thresholds to protect specific classes of municipal infrastructure, using the most recent Chesapeake Bay extreme rainfall predictions released in 2021;
• Activity 3: Establish Resilient Design Adaptations – Evaluate commonly used Bay stormwater managment and restoration practices and develop guidance and criteria for design specifications that could be adapted to meet the needs of local Bay communities to improve long-term resilience of BMPs; and
• Activity 4: Modeling to Estimate Impact - Conduct research and modeling analysis, including estimates of uncertainty, and describe the impacts of future hydrology on simulated urban BMPs.
Deadline: Sep. 22, 2023
Consistent with Assistance Listing 66.466 and CWA Section 117(d), competition under this solicitation is available for technical and general assistance grants to nonprofit organizations, State, tribal (federallyrecognized) and local governments, colleges, universities, and interstate agencies. For-profit organizations are not eligible to submit applications in response to this RFA.
The total estimated federal funding under this solicitation is approximately $1,880,000 for one cooperative agreement. Funding will be awarded incrementally in the amount of $560,000 per year for Years 1-3 and $100,000 per year for Years 4-5 depending on funding availability, satisfactory performance, Agency priorities, and other applicable considerations.