Illinois EPA administers the $25 million Green Infrastructure Grant Opportunities program. GIGO provides grants for projects to construct green infrastructure BMPs that prevent, eliminate, or reduce water quality impairments by decreasing stormwater runoff into Illinois rivers, streams, and lakes. Projects may be located on public or private land.
For the purposes of GIGO, green infrastructure means any stormwater management technique or practice employed with the primary goal to preserve, restore, mimic, or enhance natural hydrology. Green infrastructure includes, but is not limited to, methods of using soil and vegetation to promote soil percolation, evapotranspiration, and filtering or the harvesting and reuse of precipitation.
According to U.S. EPA, localized and riverine flooding will likely become more frequent. Localized flooding happens when rainfall overwhelms the capacity of the urban drainage systems, while riverine flooding happens when river flows exceed the capacity of a river channel. By reducing stormwater runoff in urban areas, diverting water away from impacted areas, and reconnecting streams to their floodplains, GIGO can improve water quality by reducing the number and duration of both localized and riverine flood events.
Eligible GIGO projects provide water quality improvement through the implementation of BMPs to decrease stormwater runoff prior to release into rivers, streams, and lakes and include:
1. Reconnection of a stream with its floodplain (e.g., two-stage ditch, daylighting).
2. Treatment and flow control of stormwater runoff at sites directly upstream or downstream of an impervious area that currently impacts river, stream, or lake water quality through stormwater runoff discharge.
3. Treatment and flow control of water generated from impervious surfaces associated with urban development, such as roads and buildings.
GIGO utilizes funds distributed by the state of Illinois generated under the Build Illinois Bond Fund. Illinois EPA expects to award a total of $5,000,000 per year between 2021 and 2025 and anticipates distributing this amount across two to 10 awards annually. GIGO has a set maximum total grant award of $2,500,000 with a minimum grant award of $75,000.
GIGO funds are available to local watershed groups, land conservancies or trusts, public and private profit and nonprofit organizations and institutions, units of government (county, municipal, township, or state), universities and colleges, park districts and other local land managing agencies, Soil and Water Conservation Districts, and conservation organizations.
A total of 47 GIGO applications were submitted to Illinois EPA in the fall of 2020. These applications requested almost $23 million in GIGO assistance to implement green infrastructure projects totaling more than $35 million. Eleven GIGO grants totaling $5 million were awarded. Local match is estimated to be almost $4 million for an estimated total project implementation cost of $9 million.
The 11 GIGO projects have submitted the following annual estimates:
- 4,973 pounds of nitrogen reduced.
- 1,423 pounds of phosphorus reduced.
- 1,063 tons of sediment reduced.
- 31,414,497 gallons of stormwater retained.
Find more on the Illinois EPA website.
