From the Department of Water Resources:
The Department of Water Resources (DWR) is pleased to announce that the Sustainable Groundwater Management (SGM) Grant Program’s SGMA Implementation Round 2 grant solicitation has officially opened. Round 2 is open to applicants located within medium and high priority basins, including critically overdrafted groundwater basins. The 2021 SGMA Implementation Guidelines (2021 Guidelines) and Proposal Solicitation Package (PSP) posted in December 2021 can be located on the SGM Grant Program’s website at www.water.ca.gov/sgmgrants and will be used for Round 2. Round 2 will provide approximately $230 million (depending upon the upcoming 2023/2024 State Budget Act) for planning and implementation projects to help comply with the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act.
The SGM Grant Program team surveyed past applicants, past Grantees, and current Grantees on the solicitation process and developed several templates, streamlined the application questions, and provided examples to help reduce the time investment needed to apply for grant funds. The following are provided or will be provided shortly:
- Examples of previously executed agreements will be posted on the website that provides three different examples of scope of work and deliverables that applicants can use to help develop the Scope of Work and Deliverable portion of the Work Plan.
- The Work Plan template includes the scoring question technical reviewers will use, the amount of points that question holds, and other clarifying questions that will assist in providing the information needed. Page limits for the Work Plan are by component (4-pages per component) to allow applicants to answer thoroughly without going over the overall page limit requirements.
- New resolution language is included to assist in development of the applicant’s resolution.
- A revised Eligibility Criteria Self-Certification form is provided to allow applicants to expand the tables, add information as needed, and make it easier for applicants to edit the size of the answer. This is based off of feedback received during previous solicitations and issues applicants were having answering the questions.
- The budget and schedule details have been eliminated from the required submittal. The application is only requiring budget and schedule summaries providing details on just the budget categories instead of tasks/subtask.
- Questions that repeated or were unclear during Round 1 were edited or removed to make the solicitation cleaner.
A public applicant workshop will be held on October 20, 2022 10:00 AM to 12:00 PM. The applicant workshop will be hosted via a Zoom webinar. Registration for the public applicant workshop is NOT required. Simply click on the link below to join the meeting on October 20. DWR will provide breakout rooms at the end of the workshop to hopefully answer questions and provide assistance. However, for those basins who are needing additional assistance or have project specific questions, the SGM Grant Program Team have been providing one on one meetings to assist basins on those detail questions not suited for a large public meeting.
https://ca-water-gov.zoom.us/j/89218414816?pwd=WlhUeDF1cGVZUU9ISFZycjdIWFhKdz09
For more information on document releases, new solicitations, upcoming workshops, and other grant-related announcements, subscribe to the SGM Grant Program mailing list.
If you have any questions, please submit to: SGWP@water.ca.gov.
