Projects & Funding
Proposition 1 IRWM Grant Solicitation
LAST UPDATED 6/20/2023
Proposition 1 (Water Code § 79744) authorized $510 million in IRWM grant funds to the 12 hydrologic region-based Funding Areas for the purposes of IRWM. Of the $510 million, $34 million was allocated to the Tulare-Kern Funding Area. The Kings Basin Water Authority (KBWA) is one of seven IRWM Groups in the Tulare-Kern Funding Area. The California Department of Water Resources (DWR) will administer three separate grant programs for the IRWM regions.
1. Disadvantaged Community Involvement Program – Water Code §79745 directs not less than $51 million for the purpose of ensuring the involvement of disadvantaged communities (DAC), economically distressed areas (EDA), and underrepresented communities within IRWM regions. These funds will be awarded on non-competitive basis or direct expenditures.
$3.4 million was allocated to the Tulare-Kern Funding Area. The County of Tulare submitted a proposal for the DAC Involvement Grant Program on behalf of the Tulare-Kern Funding Area to DWR in early April 2017. A Grant Agreement was executed with DWR in February 2018. The KBWA received a total of $392,000 for three DAC planning projects. The DAC projects were completed in late 2021.
2. Planning Grant Program – Up to $5 million will be awarded through a competitive process to support the development of new IRWM Plans or to update an existing IRWM Plan.
A grant application to update the 2012 Kings Basin IRWM Plan was submitted in September 2016. The KBWA was recommended for $202,817 in grant funding. The total cost for the Kings Basin IRWM Plan update was $256,052 with the KBWA contributing $53,235 in local cost share. In conjunction with the Kings Basin IRWM Plan update, the KBWA developed a Storm Water Resources Plan for the KBWA IRWM region (the Plan excludes areas covered by the Fresno Metropolitan Flood Control District’s functionally equivalent Storm Water Resource Plan and County of Tulare’s Cottonwood Creek Storm Water Resource Plan). This project was completed in December 2018.
3. Implementation Grant Program – Approximately $418.3 million will be awarded for Implementation programs and projects, of which not less than $51 million will be allocated to projects that directly benefit DACs (Water Code §79742(d)). The IRWM Implementation Grant Program will have two rounds of funding. Round 1 will have approximately $185 million for Implementation Projects and approximately $15 million for DAC Projects. Round 2 will have approximately $182.3 million for Implementation Projects and approximately $36 million for DAC Projects.
The KBWA was awarded $1,113,033 in Round 1 in January 2021 for one implementation project benfitting a DAC. The KBWA was awarded $6,243,505 in Round 2 in February 2023 for three implementation projects of which two of the projects will benefit a DAC.
Solicitation announcements will be posted to this page following any announcements made by DWR to their IRWM webpage:
http://www.water.ca.gov/irwm/grants/prop1index.cfm
For more information regarding IRWM grant opportunities, please contact Soua Lee at slee@krcd.org.