Beach Grants
| Jurisdiction: |
Federal
|
| Incentive Type: | Grant Program |
| Industries: |
Infrastructure, Marine, Health And Safety
|
| Category: |
Financial Incentive
|
| Time Period: |
FY 2015
|
| Governing Body: | US Environmental Protection Agency |
| What’s it worth?: | $130 million |
The BEACH Act has developed programs for eligible participants to develop and implement beach monitoring and notifications systems and programs in:
- Coastal states
- Great Lakes states
- Territories
- Tribes
The program provides grant funds for monitoring systems in coastal recreation waters only. All eligible participants must be able to implement systems that are in compliance with the applicable performance criteria in five categories:
- EvaluationShops and Classification
- Monitoring
- Public Notification and Prompt Risk Communication
- Implementation Schedules
- Public Evaluation
The general requirements for these criteria include:
- Risk-based beach evaluation
- Monitoring plan
- Procedure methods and assessments
- Submission of monitoring report
- Monitoring responsibilities
- Communication plan
- Notification actions
- Notification report submission
- Notification responsibilities
- Corrective actions identification and implementation
- Public evaluation of the programs
Funds may be used for development and implementation of notification and monitoring programs. Eligible participants may qualify for a two-phase grant program funding both development and implementation phases. Typical awards run between $50,000 and $330,000. As long as funds are available, all eligible, apply participants will be awarded through a noncompetitive process.
Eligible areas include areas that meet the following criteria:
- Jurisdictional boundaries of shoreline
- Natural or artificial barriers forming beach boundaries
- Access factors in proximity to
– Towns
– Roads
– Parking lots
– Visitor centers
– Shops
– Cultural landmarks
- Limits on lifeguard and monitoring programs
Questions and forms can be accessed on the EPA website.
