Friday, July 27 is the deadline to apply for funding to purchase conservation easements or parcels of land to protect one or more active public surface water drinking water supplies or one or more active public groundwater drinking water wells.  This funding is through the Water Quality Improvement Project (WQIP) program, a competitive, statewide reimbursement grant program open to local governments and not-for-profit corporations.  For source water protection land acquisition, this grant program requires recipients to provide 25% of the award amount as a local share of the project.

Highest priority projects include those that protect land parcels directly adjacent to surface waterbodies used as an active public drinking water supply or parcels within 1,000 feet of an active public drinking water well source.  Applications are accepted through the Consolidated Funding Application (CFA) before 4:00 PM on July 27, 2018.  The website for the CFA is: https://apps.cio.ny.gov/apps/cfa/