County Of Cayuga

Cayuga County Soil & Water Conservation District, a division of Cayuga County government based in Auburn, New York, operates as a grant sub-recipient and prime recipient delivering agricultural conservation and disaster recovery work to federal agencies including the Department of Agriculture, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, and the Department of Energy. As a U.S. local government entity, the district does not hold federal contracts and does not compete for procurement vehicles; its federal footprint consists entirely of grant funding and grant sub-awards.

The district's recent activity reflects a sparse but specialized grant profile. Across six awards obligated since 2009 — split evenly between prime grant receipts (50%) and grant sub-awards (50%) — the district has captured $1.5 million in combined federal dollars. The Department of Agriculture's Natural Resources Conservation Service dominates the portfolio with three awards; the Federal Emergency Management Agency placed two awards; the Department of Energy contributed one. Most recent activity ended in March 2023, with a three-year gap since the prior award in 2021.

Representative work includes a sub-award from the New York State Division of Homeland Security & Emergency Services dated March 2023 for County Road improvements (660210) and a second sub-award from the same grantor for County Wide Roads; both appear to be FEMA disaster relief pass-throughs. More substantively, a 2021 sub-award from the Great Lakes Commission (a federal-state water-resource consortium) funded the Owasco Lake Nutrient Reduction Project, a three-year initiative addressing phosphorus and nitrogen loading from agricultural land into a threatened municipal water supply serving over 70 percent of the county's residents. That project involved nutrient management planning under New York State's Agricultural Environmental Management program, residue and tillage management across more than 4,000 acres in the Owasco Lake watershed, and erosion control installation — conservation practice delivery aligned with New York's harmful algal bloom action plan and the Owasco 9E remediation plan.

The district functions as a sub-unit of Cayuga County government and does not operate as a vendor for prime contracting or as a team member on federal procurement vehicles.