Wisconsin Environment Grants

Environmental Cleanup & Brownfields Redevelopment. The RR Program accepts applications for traditional petroleum grants and loans year-round. There is no application deadline. We recommend that anyone interested in applying for funding first discuss your project with DNR staff. Please contact Gena Larson to discuss your project. In order to be eligible for funding, a site must meet the following criteria. The site must meet the federal definition of an eligible brownfield, which is "real property, the expansion, redevelopment, or reuse of which may be complicated by the presence or potential presence of a hazardous substance, pollutant, or contaminant." The site or costs must be ineligible for the Petroleum Environmental Cleanup Fund Award (PECFA) reimbursement. The grant or loan recipient must not have contributed to contamination, and there are no persons responsible for the contamination that are both subject to an environmental enforcement action and able to pay for the cleanup. There must be no federal enforcement action under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA), obligation under the federal Oil Pollution Act (OPA), or use of federal leaking underground storage tank (LUST) funds at the site. The DNR can help make this determination.

Recreational boating facility projects. Past projects have included ramps and service docks to gain access to the water, purchase of aquatic weed harvesting equipment, navigation aids and dredging waterway channels. These grants may be used by counties, towns, cities, villages, tribes, sanitary districts, public inland lake protection and rehabilitation districts and qualified lake associations for recreational boating facility projects. FOR GRANT REQUESTS IN EXCESS OF $250,000: Applications for RBF grants exceeding $250,000 are encouraged to be submitted to your regional DNR grants specialists in time for the June 1st, or September 1st, application deadlines. These larger grant requests take extra processing time and therefore are highly recommended for earlier evaluation, in the first two quarters of the fiscal year. Contact your regional DNR grants specialist as soon as possible, if you have a larger project and you are planning to apply for a RBF grant. DNR grants specialists can help with scheduling and grant processing.

The Boating Infrastructure Grant (BIG) Program aims to construct, renovate, and maintain facilities for transient recreational vessels at least 26 feet long. Funding is available at both state and national levels, with applications due annually by June 1. Eligible activities include various infrastructure projects, informational materials specific to BIG, but exclude certain activities like law enforcement support or land acquisition. Grants require a minimum 25% matching funds, with the federal share not exceeding 75% of total costs. Contact the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources for more information.

The Ready for Reuse program will only be funding sites that are READY to begin cleanup activities, and have enough secured funding to finish the cleanup. The RR Program accepts applications for traditional hazardous substance grants and loans year-round. There is no application deadline. We recommend that anyone interested in applying for funding first discuss your project with DNR staff. Please contact Gena Larson to discuss your project. Loan and grant funds can be used for eligible costs incurred during the grant or loan agreement period for cleanup of contamination from hazardous substances or hazardous substances commingled with petroleum.

The DNR and the Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection (DATCP) offer cost share funding grants to governmental units working with owners and operators of livestock operations to meet pollution control requirements imposed by the DNR. ELIGIBLE PROJECTS Eligible projects are those designed to implement best management practices (BMPs) for improving water quality impaired by pollution discharges at an animal feeding operation satisfying the conditions of the NOD or NOI. INELIGIBLE PROJECTS Ineligible projects are those that address previously in-compliance facilities, were included in a previous offer of cost-sharing, cover routine maintenance and operation of BMPs, or cover a significant expansion of the livestock operation.

The goal of the Landowner Incentive Program (LIP) is to help private landowners create and manage habitat for species that are rare or declining. The program provides management advice, assistance with management plans and cost share funding to individuals and organizations on private lands — with a focus on the Driftless Area of Wisconsin. The LIP is a cost-share program, and the DNR can reimburse a landowner for up to 75% of the cost for the on-the-ground practices that are involved in the management of the project