From the Virginia Department of Recreation and Conservation (DCR):
Dam owners and local governments may apply for $1.2 million in grants available from the Virginia Dam Safety, Flood Prevention and Protection Assistance Fund.
The fund is managed by the Virginia Resources Authority on behalf of the Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation.
All grants are reimbursements and require a 50 percent match. The maximum amount per grant will be determined based on amounts requested from eligible projects, application scores and available funds.
Requests must be submitted by 4 p.m., March 31, 2017.
The Stafford County Board of Supervisors earlier this month voted to loan Lake Arrowhead residents about $700,000 to repair and retain two failing dams.
Could this new grants be used to offset some of the cost?
From Stafford County Rock Hill District Supervisor Wendy Maurer:
…in our budget for the dam repair, there was a $25k amount labeled as grant funding. This is the grant we were referring to and have been eagerly waiting for it to open for about a year.
Additionally, our legislative committee requested and just had a bill pass allowing the County to apply for grant funds to repair dams not owned by the County. It almost died, but our trip to Richmond saved it.
I was told today that it is heading to the Governor’s desk for signature. We also tried to put in a budget add for $400k but unsurprisingly that didn’t get very far in this very tight budget year.
We haven’t discussed our efforts too much because funding the bulk of the project outside the County loan is a long shot. I didn’t want to set unrealistic expectations as it wouldn’t be fair to the Lake Arrowhead residents. But the bottom line is that Stafford is aggressively exploring all options to reduce the burden on the Lake Arrowhead Community.
From DCR:
Grants are offered in two categories:
Dam safety grants are available to private dam owners and local governments for dams that have been under a regular or conditional certificate during the past 12 months. If the applicant’s dam is not under a certificate, detailed documentation must be provided to demonstrate the steps being taken to bring the dam under certificate.
Grants may be used for dam break inundation zone analysis, mapping and digitization; probable maximum precipitation impact analysis and certification; hazard classification analysis; emergency action plan development; spillway capacity analysis; dam engineering and design activities; and other projects as specified in the grant manual.
Flood prevention and protection grants are available to local governments and can be used for community outreach and educational programs; ordinance development and revision; development of flood cost reduction and resiliency standards; locality flood warning and response systems; or improvements to floodplain programs.
