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CWA Section 123
66.962
N/A
To support the protection and restoration of the Columbia River Basin the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) established the Columbia River Basin Restoration Program (CRBRP). CRBRP promotes ecosystem protection and restoration activities and strategies by working with federal agencies, states, tribes, regional water pollution control agencies and entities, local governments, non-governmental entities and soil and water conservation districts to improve water quality and support environmental protection and restoration. Program has considered relevant approaches to achieving the intended goals and objectives of the program consistent with statutory requirements, including priorities in Executive Order 14052, Implementation of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, to invest public dollars equitably, create jobs and high labor stands, ensure goods and services are made in America, and build infrastructure that is resilient and helps combat the climate crisis using Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) funds. Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) is being used to fund grant projects in the Lower Columbia River Estuary and the Middle and Upper Columbia River Basin for Toxic Reduction Organization Leads and projects with the focus on Tribal Governments.
This chart shows obligations for the program by fiscal year. All data for this chart was provided by the
administering agency and sourced from SAM.gov, USASpending.gov, and Treasury.gov.
For more information on each of these data sources, please see the
About the data page.
Accomplishments under this assistance listing include: **One project under this grant program is reducing toxic pollution in the Middle Columbia River Basin by educating and inspiring students and community members to prevent pollution discharges. Developed four pollution-prevention curriculum modules tailored to Columbia River toxic pollution, and pollution prevention and reduction strategies. These online curriculum modules are targeted at middle school students in the Columbia River Gorge. Modules focus on four topics: Household Contaminants; Stormwater, Riparian Zones, and Microplastics.Website here: https://www.columbiariverkeeper.org/engaging-communities/pollution-prevention-curriculum Created two bilingual pollution prevention fact sheets completed and distributed via web, email, and social media. https://www.columbiariverkeeper.org/sites/default/files/2021-03/Toxins%20in%20Home_d_Spanish_0.pdf https://www.columbiariverkeeper.org/sites/default/files/2021-03/Toxins%20in%20Home_d.pdf Produced two bilingual radio shows produced and aired on Radio Teirra and posted on Riverkeeper website as podcasts. Completed two community education webinars - “Homebodies and Waterbodies” and “Environmental Advocacy and Justice Perspectives from La Comunidad Latina”. Together the webinars had 165 attendees who tuned in live, and the recordings have been viewed over 1,000 times to-date and will continue to be available via our website and social media outlets. In just two of the four planned events, total outreach targets of 150 people have been exceeded. https://www.columbiariverkeeper.org/news/2021/3/environmental-advocacy-and-justice https://www.columbiariverkeeper.org/news/2021/2/homebodies-and-waterbodies-recap **The Pesticide Reduction Outreach (PRO) Campaign is a behavior change campaign that promotes citizen engagement and knowledge by targeting residential users of herbicides and insecticides. 92 participants attended virtual Community Based Social Marketing workshop. **Another project will provide on-site technical assistance, trainings, resources, and pollution prevention evaluations to automotive and landscaping businesses, and expand the Ecological Business Program (EcoBiz). One of eight Safer Chemical Alternatives Trainings have taken place (Jan 2021), a second is planned for June 2021. Updated EcoBiz Landscaping Checklist. Have reached out to 100 businesses and offered Ecobiz technical assistance in landscaping and automotive sectors to help implement best practices and reduce toxic chemicals. **Another project is expanding an existing stormwater retrofit program that fills a regulatory gap by working with businesses on a voluntary basis who do not have a regulatory requirement to install stormwater facilities or otherwise manage site-produced toxins that impact urban stormwater runoff. These retrofits reduce or eliminate pollution and runoff, improve water quality, and protect habitat while promoting citizen engagement and knowledge. 70 new businesses have been added to the Stormwater Retrofit Project pipeline (Feb 2021) and five of these businesses have carried out site visits.
Listed are some accomplishments from projects funded with FY2019-2022 funds: 1) The GREAT Grattix Box project builds on the proven Grattix Box technology developed by the Port of Vancouver. Since their invention, the Port has promoted their use, provided detailed building plans, and spread the word about this effective and inexpensive stormwater treatment technology. As a result, numerous companies have built and deployed their own Grattix Boxes” and developed a list of 40 potential Grattix Box placement sites. Oregon State University students built 10 Grattix Boxes, which were transported to the Port of Vancouver for storage prior to deployment in the project. Oregon State University created a YouTube video documenting the experiences of the students who built the Grattix boxes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UQ3qHqYXtM4. 2) With the help of the Palouse Conservation District, one grantee expanded their surface water monitoring program to a region and crops they had never sampled before. They also removed more than 18,000 pounds of pesticides from these watersheds. This has been an amazing opportunity to expand their programs and begin building the long-term partnerships they need to work alongside Washington’s growers to reduce the number of pesticides entering our waterways. The Palouse Conservation District collected samples from two sites, a total of 32 samples in 2021 and 18 more so far in 2022. The grantee staff from the Natural Resources Assessment Section have collected samples from three sites, 51 in 2021 and 38 so far in 2022. Each sample is tested for more than 150 pesticides and pesticide related chemicals. They have hosted two virtual workshops (Palouse Pesticide Education Event), one in February 2021 and one in February 2022, sharing information on Washington State Department of Agriculture’s free waste pesticide collection program, the surface water monitoring program, and EPA’s pesticide registration review and risk assessment process. Each workshop was attended by more than 100 licensed pesticide applicators as well as growers from the Palouse region. The grantee’s Technical Services and Education Program collected almost 10,000 pounds of unusable pesticides during collection events in the Palouse River Watershed in September 2021 and May 2022. The Technical Services and Education Program also collected waste pesticides in the Yakima River Watershed in March 2022, where nearly 8,000 pounds of pesticides were collected. 3) Another grantee produced the following video “https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCG63A3K-iykeGrjLp9xu9tA/videos as part of their “Follow the Water” digital campaign. This is the description of the project included with the video – “Follow the Water is about our relationship with our rivers in Oregon, Southwest Washington, and the communities along the Columbia River. It’s about connecting people with our water - where we live, work, and play. It’s also about connecting our behaviors to the rivers so we understand that what we do can change the water both positively and negatively. Ultimately, it’s about learning and sharing new ways to be better to our water with your friends and neighbors. Whether you are new to the area, or if you have been here your whole life, the experience of water is special. It is why many of us choose to be here. And that is why the future of our water means so much to us. Follow the Water is the work of a voluntary collaborative of over 60 organizations, from federal, state, and local governments, watershed councils, Soil & Water Conservation Districts, and water related non-profits in our area.”
EPA awarded $349,040 to an Idaho Tribe to monitor contaminant trends, transport, uptake, and transfer through the Kootenai River Ecosystem, whose health and resiliency is currently threatened by human activity. The Tribe will evaluate fish bioaccumulation trends, with an emphasis on selenium and mercury, to inform future adaptive management of restoration programs, policy to protect recent successes in rebuilding fish abundance, and fish consumption advisories to protect Tribal and public health. The Tribe has collected 805 water samples at the Kootenai River in Idaho, Montana, and British Columbia to determine how contaminants are dispersing and reacting within different habitat types. Samples were tested for selenium, nitrate, and other mine-related contaminants. The Tribe’s results have been uploaded to EPA’s Water Quality Exchange (WQX) and have been presented at various working groups and public venues, such as data sharing with the Kootenai Valley Resource Initiative, a community engagement group focused on restoring local natural resources.
EPA awarded $349,919 to an Oregon university to implement a community-based mercury monitoring network to document trends in mercury contamination, identifying pollution drivers and informing safer fishing practices. They will engage and educate community scientists to sample dragonfly larvae as mercury bioindicators, connecting people to their freshwater systems and increasing public knowledge of mercury risks to ecosystem and human health. The research team has collected data at 104 sites across the Willamette River Watershed, analyzing 1,065 dragonfly samples for total mercury and methylmercury and 208 water samples for sulfate and dissolved organic carbon. Dragonfly larvae are ideal mercury bioindicators in aquatic food webs due to their abundance, tendency to remain in one place, and importance as prey for predators. These data will be used to construct three maps of local drivers of observed mercury levels and two maps estimating mercury risk for fish consumers. These maps will be constructed once sample analysis is complete. Additionally, data findings will be summarized into four reports tailored to different audiences, including Tribes, schools, water managers, and anglers. The research team has also established on-the-ground partnerships to host community events providing mercury education. To date, 1,025 people have been engaged at community events, and has hosted two educational workshops. The project team has found that mercury concentration data can be challenging for the public to interpret and is working on making the data more accessible by showing concentrations on a scale in relation to benchmarks people are familiar with.
EPA awarded $262,500 to a Washington Tribe in partnership with state, nonprofits, and other Tribes to monitor contaminants of concern to identify contamination hotspots. The Tribe also will collect data to evaluate the movement of contaminants transported through the river and to identify which contaminants are entering the food web. Monitoring efforts will be leveraged to test the feasibility of a sediment particle trap methodology that could be scaled up for future large-scale ecosystem restoration actions. Scoping was completed over the 2023 summer and fall field season to evaluate suitability of potential sample locations, feasibility of particle trap deployments, and collection of preliminary samples. The project team designed, constructed, and successfully deployed a sediment particle trap prototype in high and low velocity conditions. An informative article prepared by the Tribe was published in the Winter 2023 Lake Roosevelt Forum newsletter. The team delivered project updates during a local tour of the project site and during the October 2023 Columbia River Basin Restoration Working Group meeting. The Tribe has been coordinating with archeological representatives from other Tribes and the National Park Service in preparation for upcoming field work to ensure appropriate permits and approvals are obtained prior to sediment collection. In preparation for the 2024 field sampling, the project team constructed a total of 15 sediment particle traps and were successfully all deployed in the Columbia and Spokane Rivers.
Montana has begun monitoring pesticide runoff - the Flathead Biological Station is launching the state’s largest effort to monitor pesticides in streams and rivers. The station will provide the first data on levels of these toxic chemicals in their waterways. They will monitor for pesticides in streams and rivers throughout 12 counties in the Columbia River Basin which has not been done before so they don’t know how bad the problem is. Data from Washington and Oregon show that pesticides are present in waterways there. They expect that to be the case in Montana. Monitoring could begin this fall and will run for five years. The team will also put on workshops and provide education materials that can help landowners reduce pesticide use and prevent runoff into streams and rivers.
Single Audit Applies (2 CFR Part 200 Subpart F):
For additional information on single audit requirements for this program, review the current Compliance Supplement.
OMB is working with the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) and agency offices of inspectors general to include links to relevant oversight reports. This section will be updated once this information is made available.
