Water Conservation Implementation Grants

These grants may be distributed to the following:
-Covered entities and state and local governmental entities
-Public and private entities whose primary purpose includes promoting the benefits of water resource conservation for education and outreach aimed at demonstrating the benefits of water efficiency.

Covered entity: means each municipality, agency, utility, including any privately owned utility, or other publicly owned entity with a legal obligation to supply, distribute, or otherwise provide water at retail to domestic, commercial, industrial, or public facility customers, and that has a total demand for such customers of two thousand acre-feet or more.

Local Governmental Entity: means a county, municipality, city and county, water district, water and sanitation district, metropolitan district that provides water services, water conservation district, water conservancy district, or water authority.

There are two groups of applicants that are eligible for monies under this Grant Program:

i) Financial assistance may be provided to a covered entity and other state and local governmental entities that have a locally adopted Water Conservation Plan and has defined goals in that Plan in accordance with §37-60-126 C.R.S.

ii) Financial assistance may be provided to a public or private entity whose primary purpose includes the promotion of water resource conservation. To apply, an applicant must demonstrate that:

-It is, in fact, a covered entity through its annual retail water demand for the past five years, and that the covered entity has a locally adopted Water Conservation Plan with goals defined for water savings; or

-It is, in fact, a state or local governmental entity through the disclosure of its organizational structure, its charter (or equivalent) and that the state or local governmental entity has a locally adopted Water Conservation Plan with goals defined for water savings; or

-It is, in fact, a public or private entity whose primary purpose includes water resource conservation based on its charter (e.g., articles of incorporation, by-laws, etc.) and/or defined operating principles.

Entities requesting funding under this program must demonstrate the ability to provide 25% of the total Project budget with matching funds, either as cash or in-kind services or through payment of consulting fees or any combination thereof.

Funds for the Grant Program will become available on July 1 of each year. Applications can be submitted at anytime during the fiscal year to the Office for consideration noting that a given application must be received by the 1st of the month prior to the Board meeting to be considered for award at that Board meeting (e.g., applications must be received by February 1st to be considered for award at the March Board meeting). Awards will be made at each of the Board’s bi-monthly meetings (i.e., January, March, May, July, September, and November) as warranted by demand and quality of applications.

Requests less than $50,000 may be submitted any time throughout the year. ­CWCB staff evaluate, score and prioritize the application using the Grant Guidelines for Water Conservation Implementation and Public Education and Outreach Projects. When an application meets the Guideline criteria, the CWCB Director, or designee, reviews and makes the final award decision. The awarded amount may be what was requested or it may be an alternate amount. Upon the Director’s approval and signature, the Grants Coordinator notifies the applicant of the award within 10 days.

Requests of $50,000 or more must be submitted by the first of the month prior to a bi-monthly Board meeting to be considered for award at that Board meeting (e.g., applications must be received by February 1 to be considered for award at the March Board meeting). Upon the Board’s approval, the Grants Coordinator notifies the applicant of the award within 30 days.
Work cannot begin until a Purchase Order is completed.

Grant Program FAQs:
http://cwcb.state.co.us/Pages/WaterEfficiencyGrantFrequentlyAskedQuestions.aspx

CWCB Board Meeting Dates:
http://cwcb.state.co.us/public-information/board-meetings-agendas/Pages/main.aspx#FutureMeetings

Application Forms and Resources:
http://cwcb.state.co.us/LoansGrants/water-efficiency-grants/Pages/main.aspx

Estimated Size of Grant: