About the Program
This pilot Grants Program is a partnership between the Rose Foundation for Communities and the Environment and the California Regional Water Quality Control Board, Los Angeles Region (Regional Board), whose mission is to preserve and enhance water quality for the benefit of present and future generations, within major portions of Los Angeles and Ventura Counties and along very small portions of Kern and Santa Barbara Counties. Grants from this Program will be funded through Supplemental Environmental Project (SEP) payments. A SEP is, in part, “an environmentally beneficial project that a person subject to an enforcement action agrees to undertake in settlement of the action and to offset a portion of a civil penalty.” As part of its scope of activities to benefit water quality in this region, the Los Angeles Regional Board may enter into settlements with dischargers that include SEPs in lieu of remitting payment of administrative civil liability to the California State Water Resources Control Board’s (State Water Board) Water Pollution Cleanup and Abatement Account and/or Waste Discharge Permit Fund. Such SEPs are typically memorialized in Administrative Civil Liability (ACL) orders. Click here to view the Fact Sheet: Funding Opportunities for Regional Board (SEPs).
The overall goals are of the Program are:
>> to support water quality related community-based projects that meet important objectives that comply with the State Water Board’s Policy on SEPs; and
>> to ensure that any project funded by a SEP both benefits and involves underserved, vulnerable, or otherwise disadvantaged communities in its design and implementation.
Since this Grants Program helps direct future SEP payments to community-based water quality projects, the purpose of the application process is to develop an initial Project List. Organizations with projects that meet both the community and water quality criteria will then be placed on the initial Project List. Projects which qualify for the Project List are then eligible for funding through a SEP. Due to the linkages between this pilot Grants Program and enforcement efforts being conducted by the State of California, all grant applications should be considered publicly-available documents, and the full text of all applications recommended for the initial Project List shall be provided to Los Angeles Regional Water members and published on their website website.
Deadlines
The 2021-2022 is currently under review for approval by the Regional Water Board. Application deadlines for 2022 have not been established. More information is expected to be released in Fall 2022. You can sign up here to receive notifications of all grant opportunities and announcements related to this Program.
Eligibility and Priorities
To be eligible for a grant from the Los Angeles Community Water Justice Grants Program, the applicant and project must meet all of the following criteria. Submitting an application for consideration does not in any way guarantee any level of funding whatsoever. Click here to read more and review project examples for the Los Angeles Grants Program.
How to Apply
We held two How To Apply calls to give detailed information about this funding opportunity, you can view the presentation here.
Click here to review how to apply to the Los Angeles Community Water Justice Grants Program.
Advisory Board
The Los Angeles Community Water Justice Grants Program is advised by a local advisory board of individuals with deep knowledge of Los Angeles issues. Click here to read the member bios.
