New Jersey Administrative Code › Title 7 - ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION › Chapter 15 - WATER QUALITY MANAGEMENT PLANNING › Subchapter 9 - WATERSHED MANAGEMENT GRANTS › Section 7:15-9.5 - Project priority award process

Current through Register Vol. 56, No. 14, July 15, 2024
(a) The Department
				shall submit the Project Priority Award List of recommended watershed
				management grant projects developed under
				7:15-9.2 to the Legislature for
				consideration and approval.
(b) The
				Department shall publish a notice in the DEP Bulletin and on the Division of
				Watershed Management web site (
www.state.nj.us/dep/watershedmgt
)
				of those projects recommended to the Legislature for approval in the Project
				Priority Award List.
(c) For all
				watershed management grant applications included on the Project Priority Award
				List and approved by the Legislature, the Department shall transmit to the
				applicant for execution a grant agreement specifying the terms and conditions
				of the grant, including the scope of work, the approved budget, and the
				schedule for completion. The applicant shall execute the grant agreement in the
				manner specified by the Department and shall return the grant agreement to the
				Department within 60 days, unless the applicant has requested and received from
				the Department an extension of the 60-day period. If the grant agreement is not
				returned by the deadline, the Department reserves the right to award the grant
				monies to the next highest ranked eligible project.
(d) Funds under a watershed management grant
				shall be released only after a grant agreement has been executed by both the
				applicant and the Department.
(e)
				The budget in the grant agreement shall specify the items eligible for funding
				under this subchapter, which may include, for example:
1. Costs of materials, supplies and
				reproduction for reports, policy recommendations, draft ordinances,
				publications, maps, diagrams and other similar documents;
2. Project implementation costs, including
				costs for travel, materials, tools, and disposal costs for debris;
3. Equipment purchases such as computers and
				global position satellite units may be eligible for grant funding. However,
				upon completion of the grant commitments, these purchases are subject to the
				Department's procedures for the disposition of equipment purchased with State
				funds;
4. Contractual costs for
				services necessary to implement the grant;
5. Costs of acquisition of real property,
				including administrative costs, where such property must be acquired as a site
				for the construction or implementation of nonstructural stormwater management,
				nonpoint source pollution controls or best management practices, including but
				not limited to, real property to be used for buffers or to protect aquifer
				recharge areas; and
6. The
				acquisition of land, as a means of avoiding new pollutant inputs or water body
				degradation, may be made eligible, if included in the notice of availability,
				but shall have a lower priority for watershed management grants than
				implementation projects that mitigate current stresses or prevent future
				stresses to water and water-related resources in ways other than land
				acquisition.