14-06 RFP Citizen Monitoring-FINAL-082514.pdf

OVERVIEW

AGENCY: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)

TITLE: Chesapeake Bay Program Office Fiscal Year 2014 Request for Proposals for

Integration of Citizen-based Monitoring and Nontraditional Monitoring Partners into the Chesapeake Bay Program Partnership

ANNOUNCEMENT TYPE: Initial Announcement

RFP NUMBER: EPA-R3-CBP-14-06

CATALOG OF FEDERAL DOMESTIC ASSISTANCE (CFDA) NUMBER: 66.466

IMPORTANT DATES

August 25, 2014 Issuance of RFP

October 8, 2014 Proposal Submission Deadline (see Section IV for more information)

October 31, 2014 Approximate date for EPA to notify applicants of results

December 1, 2014 Approximate date for applicant to submit federal cooperative agreement application

January 30, 2015 Approximate date of award

EPA will consider all proposals that are postmarked by the U.S. Postal Service, hand-delivered, sent through an official delivery service (with documentation indicating EPA acceptance from said delivery service), or submitted via Grants.gov on or before 5:00 EDT on October 8, 2014.

Any proposals postmarked, hand-delivered, or submitted via http://www.grants.gov/ after the due date and time will not be considered for funding. No proposals will be accepted by facsimile or e-mail.

SUMMARY

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Chesapeake Bay Program Office (CBPO) is announcing a Request for Proposals (RFP) for applicants to provide the Chesapeake Bay

Program (CBP) non-federal partners with support for further integrating citizen-based and nontraditional environmental monitoring programs into the CBP partnership’s existing monitoring networks. Citizen-based monitoring programs are routine environmental data collection efforts carried out by volunteers and overseen and coordinated by a given organization. Nontraditional monitoring programs are defined here as routine environmental data collection carried out by a given organization or agency and may include local governments, conservation districts, or nongovernmental organizations (academia, river basin commissions, watershed organizations, etc.) that are currently not formally part of the CBP partnership’s existing monitoring networks. The integration of citizen-based and nontraditional partner monitoring programs into the CBP partnership’s monitoring networks will provide additional, http://www.grants.gov/ cost-effective data and information that supports shared decision-making and adaptive management by the CBP partners focused on restoration of the Chesapeake Bay and its watershed.

This work includes providing technical, logistical, and outreach support for the integration of nontraditional partners’ monitoring programs into the existing watershed and tidal monitoring networks as directed by the CBP Scientific, Technical Assessment and Reporting (STAR) Team.

The CBP partners include federal agencies, seven watershed jurisdictions, and many non-federal organizations; however, work funded under this RFP will support the seven watershed jurisdictions and other non-federal partners. The seven watershed jurisdictions are Delaware, the

District of Columbia, Maryland, New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and West Virginia.

FUNDING/AWARDS: This RFP will cover the project period up to and including six years from an expected start date of January 30, 2015. CBPO plans to award one cooperative agreement under this RFP. The total estimated funding for six years is approximately

$1,200,000 to $2,400,000 with an estimated $200,000 to $400,000 available for the first year and each additional year. There is no guarantee of funding throughout this period or beyond.

FULL TEXT OF ANNOUNCEMENT

I. Funding Opportunity Description

II. Award Information

III. Eligibility Information

IV. Proposal and Submission Information

V. Proposal Review Information

VI. Award Administration Information

VII. Agency Contacts

VIII. Other Information (Appendices)

I: FUNDING OPPORTUNITY DESCRIPTION

A. Background

1. About the Chesapeake Bay Program The Chesapeake Bay is North America's largest and most biologically diverse estuary. A resource of extraordinary productivity, it is worthy of the highest levels of protection and restoration. Authorized by Section 117 of the Clean Water Act, CBP is responsible for supporting the Chesapeake Executive Council through a number of actions, including the coordination of federal, state, and local efforts to restore and protect living resources and water quality of the Chesapeake Bay and its watershed. Section 117 also authorizes EPA to provide assistance grants to support the goals of the Program.

CBP is a unique regional partnership that has led and directed the restoration of the Chesapeake

Bay since 1983. The CBP partners include the states of Delaware, Maryland, New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and West Virginia; the District of Columbia; the Chesapeake Bay http://www.chesapeakebay.net/partnerorganizations.aspx http://www.state.md.us/ http://www.state.pa.us/ http://www.state.va.us/ http://www.washingtondc.gov/ http://www.chesbay.state.va.us/

Commission, a tri-state legislative body; EPA, representing the federal government; and participating citizen, local government, and scientific and technical advisory groups.

The CBP partnership is guided at the direction of the Chesapeake Executive Council (Executive

Council), which, through its leadership, establishes the policy direction for the restoration and protection of the Chesapeake Bay and exerts its leadership to rally public support for the Bay effort and signs directives, agreements, and amendments that set goals and guide policy for

Chesapeake Bay restoration.

The Principals' Staff Committee (PSC) acts as the senior policy advisors to the Executive

Council, accepting items for their consideration and approval and setting agendas for Executive

Council meetings. The PSC also provides policy and program direction to the Management

Board.

The Management Board provides strategic planning, priority setting, and operational guidance through implementation of a comprehensive, coordinated, accountable implementation strategy for the CBP. It directs and coordinates all of the goal teams and workgroups under it.

The Goal Implementation Teams (GITs) includes federal and non-federal experts from throughout the watershed. Thus, academic experts, advocacy organizations, and others become active members of the broad restoration partnership.

Pursuant to Section 117(b)(2) of the Clean Water Act, 42 USC 1267 (b)(2), CBPO is the office within EPA charged with providing support to the Council in the restoration and protection of the Chesapeake Bay. CBPO and CBP mentioned above are two distinct entities.

2. 2014 Chesapeake Bay Watershed Agreement and Executive Order 13508 On June 16, 2014, the Chesapeake Executive Council, CBP’s governing body signed a new voluntary Chesapeake Bay Watershed Agreement that will guide the CBP partnership’s work into the future. For the first time, Delaware, New York, and West Virginia signed the agreement as full CBP partners in the overall effort. This agreement is one of the most comprehensive restoration plans developed for the Chesapeake region, providing greater transparency and accountability of all CBP partners. With 10 interrelated goals and 31 outcomes, this watershed-wide accord advances the restoration, conservation, and protection of all the lands and waters within the 64,000-square-mile watershed by promoting sound land use, environmental literacy, stewardship, and a diversity of engaged citizens. Additionally, the goals and outcomes aim to better protect and restore the Chesapeake Bay's living resources, water quality, and vital habitats.

President Obama’s Executive Order (EO) 13508, issued in May 2009, called for a new strategy and a “new era of shared federal leadership” for restoring and protecting the Chesapeake Bay.

When it was issued, the EO strategy built upon existing CBP goals and identified a set of goals and outcome measures. Since that time, federal and CBP jurisdictional partners worked collaboratively to better align the EO and CBP partnership’s goals, the results of which are reflected in the new Chesapeake Bay Watershed Agreement.

This cooperative agreement will help fulfill the Chesapeake Bay Watershed Agreement commitments as described by the Water Quality, Healthy Watersheds, and Stewardship goals http://www.chesbay.state.va.us/ and result in progress to achieve the Water Quality Standards Attainment and Monitoring, Healthy Watersheds, and Citizen Stewardship outcomes.

B. Scope of Work

This RFP is seeking cost-effective proposals from eligible applicants for providing the CBP non-federal partners with support for integrating citizen science and nontraditional monitoring programs into the CBP partnerships’ tidal and watershed monitoring networks. This work will provide the partners with additional data and information that supports shared decision-making on Chesapeake Bay and watershed restoration efforts.

The state- and EPA-funded CBP partnership water quality and biological resource monitoring programs and networks include:

1) The Chesapeake Bay tidal water quality monitoring program with 161 long-term water quality monitoring stations sampled biweekly to monthly for a physical, chemical, and biological suite of parameters;

2) The Chesapeake Bay benthic macroinvertebrate monitoring program;

3) The Chesapeake Bay submerged aquatic vegetation aerial survey and ground truth monitoring program;

4) The Chesapeake Bay river input monitoring program on the nine major tributaries to the

Chesapeake Bay; and

5) The Chesapeake Bay watershed water quality monitoring network of 122 stations sampled on average 20 times per year for chemical conditions and coordinated with real-time stream and river flow monitoring across a wide range of watershed sizes.

The CBP partnership’s monitoring networks also support sample analysis, quality assurance for field, laboratory, and data submittal, data management, data analysis, data synthesis, publication, and reporting. Further, the CBP partnership tracks changes in land use, land cover, and best management practice implementation in the accountability framework for watershed restoration.

This data supports the reporting of Chesapeake Bay and watershed health patterns and trends observed through the above-mentioned monitoring networks.

The long-term vision of the CBP partnership’s bay-wide and watershed-wide monitoring networks is to develop and establish institutional structures and procedures for coordination and integration of citizen-based and nontraditional partner monitoring programs into the partnership’s shared decision-making framework. These collaborative decisions support management decisions and adaptive management by the CBP partners that improve the health of the Chesapeake Bay and its watershed. Priority will be placed on the integration of citizen-based and nontraditional partner monitoring programs that attain consistent, reliable, quality-assured data streams and can be used to enhance the CBP partners’ decision-making process.

Proposals should specifically address how to best go about integrating citizen-based and nontraditional partners’ routinely collected environmental data in to the larger set of data used in making shared decisions within the CBP partnership. Proposals should describe plans for directly incorporating nontraditional partner and citizen-based monitoring data into existing or complementary data streams (e.g. Bay water quality, Bay living resource health, watershed water quality and living resource health). Proposals should specifically address how integrating these citizen-based and nontraditional monitoring programs into the CBP partnership’s existing monitoring networks will:

1) Fill spatial and/or temporal gaps in existing monitoring networks;

2) Improve the ability of the CBP partnership in explaining the patterns observed in the status and trends of the Chesapeake Bay and watershed health indicators; and

3) Improve cost efficiencies as the CBP partnership continues to develop its monitoring networks in answer to the continually evolving set of information needs for implementation of the goals and outcomes within 2014 Chesapeake Bay Watershed

Agreement and the resultant management strategies.

The CBP partnership plans to develop the necessary institutional structures and procedures for the coordination and ultimate integration of nontraditional partners into the larger monitoring networks by providing consistent monitoring protocols, technical guidance, equipment, communication strategies, and synthesized data results. This will include mechanisms for effective communication of results back to the CBP Partnership in support of their continued implementation of the 2014 Chesapeake Bay Watershed Agreement. The recipient of this cooperative agreement will facilitate and carry out this work. Proposals should also describe how the applicant will identify different “levels” (e.g., data quality, spatial/temporal coverage, numbers and types of parameters) of citizen-based and other nontraditional monitoring partners’ data collection, which could be matched up with the data quality and quantity needed to support the relevant 2014 Chesapeake Bay Agreement’s goals, outcomes and resultant management strategies.

CBPO plans to award one cooperative agreement under this RFP. The estimated funding for the first year is approximately $200,000 to $400,000, with an estimated $1,200,000 to $2,400,000 available over the six-year period.

If your organization has an interest in this project, has the skills to accomplish the activities, and is eligible to receive a federal assistance agreement as described in Section III of this announcement, we encourage you to submit a proposal. Each eligible proposal will be evaluated using the criteria described in Section V. The activity is a multi-year project (up to six years), and the proposal should have a work plan and budget for the first year and an estimated budget detail for each of the remaining five years.

Activity: Integration of Citizen-based Monitoring and Nontraditional Monitoring Partners into the Chesapeake Bay Program Partnership. Estimated Funding: $200,000 - $400,000 annually ($1,200,000 - $2,400,000 total)

The millions of data points generated annually through the CBP partnership’s monitoring networks, described above, are used by the CBP partners to assess the Bay jurisdictions’ achievement of Chesapeake Bay water quality standards, progress towards Chesapeake Bay and local TMDL allocated loading targets, evaluate the effectiveness of management actions taken to reduce pollutant loads, improve habitats, restore stream health, and report to the public on Bay and watershed health. The work described here is to support the expansion of the spatial and temporal monitoring coverage of water quality and biological resources in streams and rivers throughout the Chesapeake Bay and its watershed. The integration of the resultant data into information used by the CBP partners in Chesapeake Bay and watershed restoration decision-making and supportive adaptive management is a key outcome of this work.

EPA intends to award one cooperative agreement to an organization to support the Chesapeake

Bay Program’s goals of expanding and accelerating the implementation of:

nutrient and sediment load reduction practices and technologies; and

Habitat restoration and protection actions throughout the Chesapeake Bay watershed through evaluation of programmatic gaps, institutional capacity, and implementation effectiveness leading to adaptive management.

These goals aim to increase the capacity of the CBP partners to focus on implementing the pollution reduction practices resulting in the highest load reductions for the lowest costs as well as restoring those habitats that will yield the highest ecological benefits. The goals also include enhancing the use of water quality and biological resource monitoring data to (1) better understand the cause of the observed trends in the health of the Bay watershed ecosystem and (2) improve the CBP partnership’s accountability systems for providing more direct measures of the success (or lack thereof) of implemented management actions.1

The resultant monitoring data are used by the CBP partnership’s seven watershed jurisdictions to:

Assess attainment of the four tidal waters jurisdictions’ (Delaware, District of Columbia, Maryland, and Virginia) Chesapeake Bay water quality standards regulations;

Determine management effectiveness of locally implemented practices, treatments, and technologies;

Explain observed water quality and biological resources trends in local streams, rivers, and tidal waters;

Report on the effectiveness of the Chesapeake Bay and watershed restoration actions to the public; and

Support adaptive management by the jurisdictional and local partner agencies.

The proposing organization should be able to demonstrate prior successful experience in its institutional capacity for expanding and sustaining monitoring networks within the partnership-oriented, implementation-focused structure of the CBP partnership.

The applicant should be able to demonstrate successful experience in:

Working with citizen-based monitoring programs and nontraditional monitoring partners;

1 These accountability systems are currently largely dependent on tracking, verifying, reporting, and quantifying the estimated pollutant load reduction potential of practices, treatments, and technologies implemented throughout the

Chesapeake Bay watershed.

Working with state agencies, federal agencies, and river basin commissions traditionally responsible for the operation and maintenance of water quality and biological resource monitoring programs;

Providing expert advice and direction to citizen-based and other organizations with interests in generating, quality assuring, and managing data directed towards better understanding the health of their local waterways; and

Understanding and evaluating opportunities for how to best integrate citizen monitoring and nontraditional monitoring partners into existing CBP partnership’s monitoring networks and ensuring the quality of the data is consistent with and relevant to the intended management applications.

The CBP partnership’s STAR Team has an Integrated Monitoring Networks Workgroup and a

Methods, Quality and Delivery Workgroup. The cooperative agreement recipient will use these two workgroups as forums for actively seeking collaborative development of methodologies, procedures, programs, policies, and shared decision-making supporting efforts by the partners to successfully integrate citizen monitoring and nontraditional monitoring partners into the CBP partnership’s two existing monitoring networks.

The following are examples of the types of activities to support the actions and activities of the

CBP partnership’s STAR Team and its workgroups. Applicants may consider these activities as well as describe alternative approaches to providing the requested technical support to the partners and the larger partnership.

Integration of Citizen Science and Nontraditional Monitoring Partners

Update and enhance the current inventory of citizen-based monitoring and nontraditional partners monitoring programs. This may include more information on the planned longevity of their data collection activities and willingness to become part of a large network of monitoring programs across the Chesapeake Bay watershed and the tidal

Chesapeake Bay waters.

Schedule, coordinate, and facilitate meetings to assist in the building and strengthening of partnerships.

Recruit new member organizations into the existing monitoring networks and develop longer-term institutional structures for maintaining the expanded networks.

Develop and then seek CBP partnership agreement on tiered levels of involvement of citizen-based monitoring and nontraditional partner monitoring programs within the existing Bay watershed and tidal waters monitoring networks given the objectives of these varied monitoring programs and the quality of the generated data.

Development of Methodologies, Data Management and Reporting Procedures, and Analysis

Establish standardized methodologies, working through the CBP partnership’s STAR

Team and its workgroups, for data collection, including sampling design, acquisition, and processing; quality control and analysis; data management; and data submittal that will ensure the resultant data can be used directly in addressing state and local regulatory needs in free-flowing streams and rivers of the Chesapeake Bay watershed and the

Chesapeake Bay tidal waters.

Working through STAR and its workgroups, establish these methods as CBP partnership-approved protocols for all data-collecting organizations to utilize.

Research, develop, and test new citizen-based monitoring and nontraditional partner monitoring programs’ data-based indicators and metrics for their ability to help measure and evaluate the effectiveness of management actions.

Develop synthetic data management and reporting tools that can be used by citizen-oriented monitoring and other nontraditional monitoring programs and ensure direct reporting and input to the seven watershed jurisdictions’ existing exchange network-based monitoring data reporting systems.

Coordinate and Conduct Training and Support for Monitoring Program Integration

Provide training for citizen-based monitoring and nontraditional monitoring program partners to develop and then maintain adherence to protocols and assist in the development of locally relevant and detailed sampling and analysis protocols for individual partners.

Provide funding through the cooperative agreement to support the integration of the CBP partnership prioritized list of citizen-based and nontraditional monitoring programs into the CBP partnership’s monitoring networks.

Build partnerships with existing funders of such citizen-based monitoring and nontraditional partner monitoring programs (i.e., Chesapeake Bay Trust, National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, etc.) to leverage funding opportunities.

Develop narrative and graphical presentations and video-based tutorials, seminars, training, and outreach materials.

Develop a new website or add web pages to the existing CBP partnership’s web site

(www.chesapeakebay.net) and post materials, including tutorials, seminars, training materials, protocols, data management and reporting/outreach outlets and links.

Identify and provide the links to other websites that provide further examples of the integration of citizen-oriented monitoring and other nontraditional monitoring program partners into more traditional state and federal agency run monitoring networks.

Chesapeake Bay Program Partnership Workgroup Coordination

Work with the CBP partnership’s STAR Team’s Integrated Monitoring Networks

Workgroup chair, vice chair, and coordinator in seeking the workgroup members’ direct involvement with the review, feedback, and ultimate approval of defined levels and mechanisms for integration into the existing watershed and tidal waters monitoring networks.

Work with the CBP partnership’s STAR Team’s Methods, Quality and Delivery

Workgroup’s chair, vice chair, and coordinator in seeking the workgroup members’ direct involvement with the review, feedback, and ultimate approval of the full array of methodologies, protocols, and procedures from the point of sample collection to data reporting directly into each jurisdictions’ exchange network-based monitoring data base, including quality assurance documentation expectations.

Work with the CBP partnership’s Communications Workgroup chair, vice chair, and coordinator in seeking the workgroup members’ direct involvement with the review, feedback, and ultimate approval of outreach and communications materials, plans, and strategies.

http://www.chesapeakebay.net/

Obtaining Additional Information

For additional background information on the CBP achievements and commitments, see the CBP

Partnership’s website located at http://www.chesapeakebay.net/ or call 1-800-YOUR-BAY to receive information by mail.

C. EPA Strategic Plan Linkage & Anticipated Outcomes and Outputs

Pursuant to Section 6a of EPA Order 5700.7, “Environmental Results under EPA Assistance

Agreements,” EPA must link proposed assistance agreements to the Agency’s Strategic Plan.

EPA also requires that grant applicants and recipients adequately describe environmental outputs and outcomes to be achieved under assistance agreements (see EPA Order 5700.7, Environmental Results under Assistance Agreements, http://www.epa.gov/ogd/grants/award/5700.7.pdf).

1. Linkage to EPA’s Strategic Plan

The overall goal of this cooperative agreement is to protect and restore the Chesapeake Bay ecosystem through continued technical support to address water-quality restoration goals and maintain public awareness of Chesapeake Bay restoration. Under EPA’s FY2014–2018 Strategic

Plan, this goal supports Strategic Goal #2: Protecting America’s Waters; Objective 2.2: Protect and Restore Watersheds and Aquatic Ecosystems; specifically, Improve the Health of the

Chesapeake Bay Ecosystem. The project funded under this announcement must be linkable to these strategic goals. Specifically, the proposed activities will support jurisdictional assessment of achievement of their two-year milestones, reporting to the public on progress of implementing the jurisdictions’ WIPs, and improving adaptive management by the jurisdictional partner agencies.

2. Outputs

The term “output” means an environmental activity, effort, and/or associated work product related to an environmental goal and objective that will be produced or provided over a period of time or by a specified date. Outputs may be quantitative or qualitative but must be measurable during an assistance agreement funding period. Expected outputs from the project(s) to be funded under this announcement may include the following:

Number of citizen-based and nontraditional partners’ monitoring programs that are cataloged and prioritized for integration into the CBP partnership’s existing watershed and tidal waters monitoring networks.

Number of citizen-based and nontraditional partners’ monitoring programs that are fully integrated into the CBP partnership’s existing watershed and tidal waters monitoring networks.

Number of training sessions held.

Number of contacts with citizen-based and nontraditional partner monitoring program organizations.

Number of dollars leveraged by integrating citizen-based nontraditional partner monitoring program into the CBP partnership’s monitoring networks.

http://www.chesapeakebay.net/ http://www.epa.gov/ogd/grants/award/5700.7.pdf

Increased spatial (e.g., number of stations) and temporal (e.g., frequency of sample collection) coverage from the CBP partnership’s existing watershed and tidal waters monitoring networks.

Increased number of new environmental data points reported into each of the seven

Chesapeake Bay watershed jurisdictions’ water quality and biological resource monitoring data bases every year as a function of coordination with and integration of citizen-based and nontraditional monitoring program partners.

Progress reports and a final report will also be required outputs, as specified in Section VI(C) of this announcement, “Reporting Requirement.”

3. Outcomes

The term “outcome” means the result, effect, or consequence that will occur from carrying out an environmental program or activity that is related to an environmental or programmatic goal or objective. Outcomes may be qualitative and environmental, behavioral, health-related, or programmatic in nature but must also be quantitative. They may not necessarily be achievable within an assistance agreement funding period. An example of an outcome under this proposal is increased confidence in individual Bay watershed jurisdictions’ assessments of impaired waters, due to increased sample size and spatial and temporal coverage, in their biennial assessment of their jurisdictions’ free flowing and tidal water bodies. Another example is improved ability by the jurisdictional and other partners to evaluate the effectiveness of implemented management practices toward improving stream, river, and tidal water quality conditions through development and application of enhanced indicators based on new citizen-based and nontraditional partners monitoring program generated data.

D. Authorizing Statutes and Regulations

The cooperative agreement made as a result of this announcement is authorized under the Clean

Water Act, Section 117(d). Under Section 117(d) (1) of the Clean Water Act, EPA has the authority to issue grants and cooperative agreements for the purposes of protecting and restoring the Chesapeake Bay's ecosystem. This project is subject to EPA’s General Grant Regulations: 40

CFR Part 30 for Grants and Cooperative Agreements with Institutions of Higher Education, Hospitals, and other Nonprofit Organizations and 40 CFR Part 31 Uniform Administrative

Requirements for Grants and Cooperative Agreements to State and Local Governments.

II: AWARD INFORMATION

A. Funding Amount and Expected Number of Awards

CBPO plans to award one cooperative agreement under this RFP. Funding for the activity listed above is approximately $200,000 to $400,000 annually for FY2015 through FY2020, depending on funding availability, satisfactory performance, and other applicable considerations. The total estimated funding for six years is approximately $1,200,000 to $2,400,000.

EPA reserves the right to reject all proposals and make no award under this announcement.

EPA reserves the right to make additional awards under this announcement, consistent with

Agency policy and guidance, if additional funding becomes available after the original selection is made. Any additional selection for awards will be made no later than six months after the original selection decision.

B. Award Type

EPA has determined that a cooperative agreement is the appropriate funding vehicle for this project. Cooperative agreements are used under circumstances where substantial involvement is anticipated between EPA and the recipient during performance of the activity. EPA awards cooperative agreements for those projects in which it expects to have substantial interaction with the recipient throughout the performance of the project. EPA will negotiate the precise terms and conditions of “substantial involvement” as part of the award process. Federal involvement may include close monitoring of the recipient’s performance; collaboration during the performance of the scope of work (in accordance with 40 CFR 30.44(e) or 31.36(g), as appropriate); review of proposed procurements; review of key personnel; and/or review and comment on the content of printed or electronic publications prepared. EPA does not have the authority to select employees or contractors employed by the recipient. The final decision on the content of reports rests with the recipient.

For this project, federal involvement would typically be in the form of participation with other

CBP partners and stakeholders in an advisory capacity to the grantee. This participation is expected to include involvement through the various CBP Goal Implementation Teams and related committees and workgroups (on which EPA also participates to ensure that all the recommendations for technical work support the CBP partners). All work conducted is to support the efforts to restore the Chesapeake Bay ecosystem.

C. Partial Funding

In appropriate circumstances, EPA reserves the right to partially fund proposals by funding discrete portions or phases of proposed projects. If EPA decides to partially fund a project, it will do so in a manner that does not prejudice the applicant or affect the basis upon which the proposal or portion thereof was evaluated and selected for award and therefore maintains the integrity of the competition and selection process.

D. Expected Project Period

The expected project period for the cooperative agreement is six years, with funding provided on an annual basis. No commitment of funding can be made beyond the first year. The expected start date for the award resulting from this RFP is January 30, 2015.

E. Pre-Award Costs

Recipients may incur otherwise eligible and allowable pre-award costs up to 90 days prior to award at their own risk without prior approval of EPA’s award official. Pre-award costs must comply with 40 CFR 30.25(f) (1)(i - iv) and Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Circular

A-122, Cost Principles for Non-Profit Organizations, Attachment B, Item 36, for non-profit organizations; with the aforementioned regulations and with OMB Circular A-21, Cost

Principles for Educational Institutions, Section J.36, for universities; and, with OMB Circular A-

87, Cost Principles for State, Local, and Indian Tribal Governments Attachment B, Item 31 for governmental organizations.. If EPA determines that the requested pre-award costs comply with the relevant OMB Cost Principles, and that the costs are justified as allocable to the project, then these costs may be included as allowable expenditures at the time that the assistance award document is prepared. However, if for any reason EPA does not fund the proposal or the amount of the award is less than the applicant anticipated, then EPA is under no obligation to reimburse the applicant for these costs incurred. Thus, applicants incur pre-award costs at their own risk.

Costs incurred more than 90 days prior to award require the approval of EPA Region 3’s grant official.

III: ELIGIBILITY INFORMATION

A. Eligible Applicants

Nonprofit organizations, state and local governments, colleges, universities, and interstate agencies are eligible to submit proposals in response to this RFP. For-profit organizations are not eligible to submit proposals in response to this RFP.

B. Cost-Share or Matching Requirements

Pursuant to Clean Water Act 117(d)(2)(A), the agency shall determine the cost share requirements for awards. The CFDA Number 66.466 states that assistance agreement applicants must commit to a cost share ranging from 5 percent to 50 percent of eligible project costs as determined at the sole discretion of EPA. For this RFP, EPA has determined that an applicant must provide a minimum of five percent of the total cost of the project as the non-federal cost share.

Cost-share may be in the form of cash or in-kind contributions. Involvement from foundations, watershed groups, private sector, eligible governmental, as well as non-conventional partners can help with the match. This match must be met by eligible and allowable costs and is subject to the match provisions in grant regulations. Proposals that do not demonstrate how the five percent match will be met will be rejected.

C. Threshold Eligibility Criteria

Only proposals from eligible entities (see Section III.A above) that meet the following threshold eligibility criteria will be evaluated against the criteria in Section V.B. Applicants must meet the following threshold criteria to be considered for funding. Applicants deemed ineligible for funding consideration as a result of the threshold eligibility review will be notified in writing within 15 calendar days of the ineligibility determination.

1. Proposals must substantially comply with the proposal submission instructions and requirements set forth in Section IV of this announcement or else they will be rejected.

Where a page limit is expressed in Section IV with respect to the narrative proposal, pages in excess of the page limitation will not be reviewed.

2. In addition, proposals must be postmarked, hand-delivered, sent through an official delivery service (with documentation indicating EPA acceptance from said delivery service), or submitted through www.grants.gov as specified in Section IV of this announcement on or before the proposal submission deadline published in Section IV.

Applicants are responsible for ensuring that their proposal reaches the designated person/office specified in Section IV by the submission deadline. Proposals sent after the submission deadline will be considered late and returned to the sender without further consideration unless the applicant can clearly demonstrate that it was late due to EPA mishandling or because of technical problems associated with www.grants.gov.

Applicants should confirm receipt of their proposal with Tim Roberts at 410-267-5770 or roberts.timothy-p@epa.gov as soon as possible after the submission. Failure to do so may result in your proposal not being reviewed.

3. The project funded under this announcement must be linked to the strategic goal outlined in Section I.C.1.

4. For a proposal to be considered eligible for funding, substantive project-related work included in the proposal must take place within the Chesapeake Bay watershed, which includes portions of Delaware, Maryland, New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and West

Virginia, and all of the District of Columbia.

5. Proposals must show how they will meet the five percent cost-share requirement of

Section III.B.

6. Proposals requesting funding for more than the maximum of the cumulative funding range for the activity will be rejected.

7. If a proposal is submitted that includes any ineligible tasks or activities, that portion of the proposal will be ineligible for funding and may, depending on the extent to which it affects the proposal, render the entire proposal ineligible for funding.

IV: APPLICATION AND SUBMISSION INFORMATION

A. How to Obtain a Proposal Package

Applicants can download individual grant application forms from EPA’s Office of Grants and

Debarment website at: http://www.epa.gov/ogd/AppKit/application.htm.

To obtain a hard copy of materials, please send an email or written request to the Agency contact listed in Section VII of this announcement. Do not submit a full federal grant application in response to this RFP. If your proposal is selected for funding, an EPA project officer will request an application from you, negotiate the work plan and budget, and oversee the process of awarding the cooperative agreement.

http://www.grants.gov_/ http://www.grants.gov/ mailto:roberts.timothy-p@epa.gov http://www.epa.gov/ogd/AppKit/application.htm

B. Content and Form of Proposal Submission

Each proposal will be evaluated using the criteria referenced in Section V.B. of this announcement. You must submit a single-spaced proposal of up to 12 pages in length by the date and time specified in Section IV.C below. The format for this proposal is contained in Appendix

A of this announcement. Review the directions for the preparation of the proposal. Proposals that are not prepared in substantial compliance with the requirements in Appendix A will not be considered for funding and will be returned to the applicant.

The proposal package must include all of the following materials:

1. Standard Form (SF)-424, Application for Federal Assistance – Complete the form.

There are no attachments. Please be sure to include organization fax number and email address in Block 8 of SF-424. Please note that the organizational Dunn and Bradstreet

(D&B) Data Universal Number System (DUNS) number must be included on the SF-

424. Organizations may obtain a DUNS number at no cost by calling the toll-free DUNS number request line at 1-866-705-5711 or visiting their website at http://fedgov.dnb.com/webform.

2. SF-424A, Budget Information – Complete the form. There are no attachments. The total amount of federal funding requested for the project period should be shown on line 5(e) and on line 6(k) of SF-424A, the amount of indirect costs should be entered on line 6(j).

The indirect cost rate (i.e., a percentage), the base (e.g., personnel costs and fringe benefits), and the amount should also be indicated on line 22.

3. Narrative Proposal – The format for this proposal is contained in Appendix A of this announcement. Review the directions for the preparation of the proposal.

Requirements for Narrative Proposal — See Appendix A

All proposal review criteria in Section V must be addressed in the proposal. The proposal shall not exceed 12 pages in length. Pages refer to one side of a single-spaced, typed page. Font size should be no smaller than 10 and the proposal must be submitted on 8 ½” x 11" paper. Note that the 12 pages include all supporting materials, including resumes or curriculum vitae and letters of support. With the exception of documentation of non-profit status, cost-share letters of commitment, and the SF-424, if you submit more than 12 pages, the additional pages will be discarded and will not be reviewed. See Appendix A for additional instructions.

C. Submission Dates and Times

EPA will consider all submissions that are postmarked by the U.S. Postal Service, hand-delivered, include official delivery service documentation indicating EPA receipt from a delivery service, or submitted via http://www.grants.gov/ on or before 5:00 p.m. EDT on

October 8, 2014. All submissions postmarked, hand delivered, or submitted via http://www.grants.gov/ after the deadlines specified above will not be considered for funding.

No proposals will be accepted by facsimile or e-mail.

http://fedgov.dnb.com/webform

D. Intergovernmental Review

Applicants must comply with the Intergovernmental Review Process and/or consultation provisions of Section 204, Demonstration Cities and Metropolitan Development Act, if applicable, which are contained in 40 CFR Part 29. This program is eligible for coverage under

Executive Order (EO) 12372, An Intergovernmental Review of Federal Programs. An applicant should consult the office or official designated as the single point of contact in his or her state for more information on that state's required process for applying for assistance if the state has selected the program for review. Single Points of Contact can be found at http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/grants/spoc.html. Further information regarding this requirement will be provided if your proposal is selected for funding.

E. Funding Restrictions

Administrative Cost Cap Requirement under Statutory Authority

Grantees applying for CBP assistance agreements must adhere to the requirements for

“Administrative Costs” under the Clean Water Act, Section 117 (d)(4), which states that administrative costs shall not exceed 10 percent of the annual grant award (annual grant award = federal share plus cost-share). Appendix B: Administrative Cost Cap Worksheet is provided as an example of a method to calculate the 10-percent limitation. You are not required to submit

Appendix B with your proposal.

Allowable Costs

EPA assistance agreement funds may only be used for the purposes set forth in the cooperative agreement and must be consistent with the statutory authority for the award. Federal funds may not be used for cost sharing for other federal grants (except where authorized by statute), lobbying, or intervention in federal regulatory or adjudicatory proceedings. In addition, federal funds may not be used to sue the federal government or any other government entity. All costs identified in the budget must conform to applicable Federal Cost Principles contained in the

Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Cost Principles. During the grant negotiation, any ineligible costs outlined in the proposal (i.e. lobbying activities) will be excluded in the final grant award.

Programmatic Capability and Past Performance

Applicants must submit a list of federally and/or non-federally funded assistance agreements as specified in Appendix A. In evaluating this evaluation criteria, EPA will consider the information provided by the applicant and may also consider relevant information from other sources, including information from EPA files and from current/prior grantors (e.g., to verify and/or supplement the information provided by the applicant). In addition, applicants must provide information on their organizational experience and plan for timely and successfully achieving the objectives of the proposed project and their staff expertise/qualifications, staff knowledge, and resources, or the ability to obtain them, to successfully achieve the goals of the proposed project.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/grants/spoc.html

F. Submission Methods and Instructions

You may submit proposal in one of two ways: If you wish to apply electronically via http://www.grants.gov/ , please follow the appropriate instructions under “Grants.gov

Electronic Submission Instructions” below. If you wish to apply with a hard copy submission, please follow the instructions under “Hard Copy Submission Instructions” below. EPA encourages applicants to submit their proposal materials electronically through http://www.grants.gov. Please only use one form of submission.

Grants.gov Electronic Submission Instructions

The electronic submission of your application must be made by an official representative of your institution who is registered with Grants.gov and is authorized to sign applications for Federal assistance. For more information on the registration requirements that must be completed in order to submit an application through grants.gov, go to http://www.grants.gov and click on

“Applicants” on the top of the page and then go to the “Get Registered” link on the page. If your organization is not currently registered with Grants.gov, please encourage your office to designate an Authorized Organization Representative (AOR) and ask that individual to begin the registration process as soon as possible. Please note that the registration process also requires that your organization have a DUNS number and a current registration with the System for

Award Management (SAM) and the process of obtaining both could take a month or more.

Applicants must ensure that all registration requirements are met in order to apply for this opportunity through grants.gov and should ensure that all such requirements have been met well in advance of the submission deadline. Registration on grants.gov, SAM.gov, and DUNS number assignment is free.

To begin the application process under this grant announcement, go to http://www.grants.gov and click on “Applicants” on the top of the page and then “Apply for Grants” from the dropdown menu and then follow the instructions accordingly. Please note: To apply through grants.gov, you must use Adobe Reader software and download the compatible Adobe Reader version. For more information about Adobe Reader, to verify compatibility, or to download the free software, please visit http://www.grants.gov/web/grants/support/technical-support/software/adobe-reader-compatibility.html

You may also be able to access the application package for this announcement by searching for the opportunity on http://www.grants.gov. Go to http://www.grants.gov and then click on

“Search Grants” at the top of the page and enter the Funding Opportunity Number, EPA-R3-

CBP-14-06, or the CFDA number (66.466) that applies to the announcement, in the appropriate field and click the Search button. Alternatively, you may be able to access the application package by clicking on the Application Package button at the top right of the synopsis page for the announcement on http://www.grants.gov. To find the synopsis page, go to http://www.grants.gov and click “Browse Agencies” in the middle of the page and then go to

“Environmental Protection Agency” to find the EPA funding opportunities. The full funding announcement is also available at http://www.epa.gov/region03/chesapeake/grants.htm.

http://www.grants.gov/ http://www.grants.gov/ http://www.grants.gov/web/grants/support/technical-support/software/adobe-reader-compatibility.html http://www.grants.gov/web/grants/support/technical-support/software/adobe-reader-compatibility.html http://www.grants.gov/ http://www.grants.gov/ http://www.grants.gov/ http://www.epa.gov/region03/chesapeake/grants.htm

Proposal Submission Deadline Your organization’s AOR must submit your complete proposal electronically to EPA through

Grants.gov (http://www.grants.gov) no later than 5 p.m. EDT on October 8, 2014. Please allow for enough time to successfully submit your application process and allow for unexpected errors that may require you to resubmit.

Please submit all of the application materials described in Section IV.B above (SF-424, SF-

424A, and Narrative Proposal). For additional instructions on completing and submitting the electronic application package, click on the “Show Instructions” tab that is accessible within the application package itself.

If you have not received a confirmation of receipt from EPA (not from Grants.gov) within 30 days of the proposal/application deadline, please contact the person listed in Section VII of this announcement. Failure to do so may result in your proposal/application not being reviewed.

Hard Copy Submission Instructions

Please submit three complete, unbound copies of the proposal package that is described in

Section IV.B (SF-424, SF-424A, and Narrative Proposal). The hard copies of the proposal should be double-sided, if possible. The proposal must be mailed or delivered to:

Tim Roberts

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

Chesapeake Bay Program Office

410 Severn Ave., Suite 109

Annapolis, MD 21403

(EPA-R3-CBP-14-06)

G. Additional Provisions for Applicants Incorporated into the Solicitation

Additional provisions that apply to this solicitation and/or awards made under this solicitation, including but not limited to those related to confidential business information, contracts and subawards under grants, and proposal assistance and communications, can be found at http://www.epa.gov/ogd/competition/solicitation_provisions.htm. These, and the other provisions that can be found at the website link, are important, and applicants must review them when preparing proposals for this solicitation. If you are unable to access these provisions electronically at the website above, please communicate with the EPA contact listed in this solicitation to obtain the provisions.

V: APPLICATION REVIEW INFORMATION

A. Evaluation Process

After EPA reviews proposals for threshold eligibility purposes as described in Section III, CBPO will conduct a merit…