WaterSMART: Desalination Construction Projects Under the WIIN Act

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The objective of this Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) is to invite sponsors of ocean and brackish water desalination projects (Projects) to request cost-shared funding for the planning, design, and/or construction of those Projects. Projects eligible for funding under this FOA include planning, design, and construction of facilities to desalinate ocean or brackish water, includinggroundwater. In order to be eligible for funding under this FOA, the Project mustmeet the following: The Project must be constructed, operated, and maintained by an eligble applicant; or the project must be sponsored by an eligible applicant. Tosponsor a project, the eligible applicant must contribute funding for asubstantial portion of the capital construction costs of the project within the timeframe of this FOA. In order to be eligible for funding, the Project must have a completed Feasibility Study that has been submitted to Reclamation for review by thedate that this FOA is posted, and for which the study is found to meet allof the requirements of Reclamation Manual Release WTR 11-01 by June28, 2019 (the application deadline of this FOA). If a feasibility study hasbeen reviewed by Reclamation and found to meet the requirements ofWTR 11-01, but the review findings have not yet been transmitted to Congress, Reclamation will transmit those findings to Congress eitherbefore project selections are made or concurrently with project selections. Eligibility does not entitle a project to any future Federal funding or createa new project authorization. The Project must be located in the Western United States or United StatesTerritories as identified in the Reclamation Act of June 17, 1902, as amended and supplemented; specifically: Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Kansas, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, Washington, Wyoming, American Samoa, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, and the Virgin Islands. The Project must be included in a state-approved plan. The plan and documentation of state approval must be submitted with the proposal prior to the application deadline for this FOA. In the alternative, if the Project is not included in a state-approved plan, Federal participation in the Project must have been requested by the Governor of the state in which the eligible desalination project is located. The applicant must submit documentation sufficient for Reclamation to make this determination along with their proposal, prior to the application deadline. The state-approved plan or Governor’s request will not count toward the page limitation. The Project must be ready to proceed within a reasonable amount of time once a financial assistance agreement is in place. Eligibility does not entitle a project to any future Federal funding or create a new project authorization.

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