Funding for Marine Pump-Out Facilities & Pump-Out Boats

All applications must be submitted via the State of Rhode Island Grant Management System (eCivis). Applications will be accepted for the 2025 season from December 2, 2024 to December 31, 2025.

This Request for Proposals (RFP) is a request for grant applications by qualified public and private marinas, yacht clubs and municipalities to construct, replace, retrofit, and maintain marine pump‐out facilities and to purchase, operate and maintain pump‐out boats. Through a competitive process, the Department of Environmental Management (DEM) will award grants to promote the development, installation, and maintenance of pump-out facilities in Rhode Island marine waters in conformance with the mandatory Federal No Discharge designation. 

All grant awards are subject to a 25% grantee (partner) dollar match requirement. In order to receive grant funding, the operator of said facility agrees not to charge the boater more than $5 per 30 gallons pumped. DEM will offer grant awards for eligible project costs of new and replacement land‐based facilities and for eligible project costs of new and replacement mobile pump-out boats. Operators of mobile pump-out vessels can also apply for grant awards for eligible Operation and Maintenance (O&M) costs. O&M costs eligible for reimbursement include hull painting, engine maintenance, pump periodic maintenance, insurance of pump-out vessel, fuel and oil, trailer maintenance, winterization, storage, launching and hauling, boat safety equipment, and personal protective equipment. 

New for the 2025 CVA Grant program, Rhode Island Marine Trade Association (RIMTA) and DEM have partnered together to streamline grants for routine operation and maintenance costs such as periodic maintenance, winterization, spring commissioning, and replacement parts. Contact Brian Dursi, RIMTA executive director, at brian@rimta.org for information on how to apply.

Grant Requirements:

• Facilities must be equally available to all recreational boaters, including those with physical handicaps, on a nondiscriminatory first come, first serve basis.
• The expenditure of funds pursuant to these grants is subject to state and federal regulations governing procurement, including requirements for competitive bidding, BABAA requirements, and goals for participation by minority or woman business enterprises (MBE/WBE). 
• Grant recipients are required to maintain accurate, current and complete financial records, which are sufficient in detail and substance to clearly establish that grant funds have been properly expended for approved grant purposes. Recipients are required to present these financial records to the Department upon request. 
• Accounting records must be supported by source documentation which shall include but not be limited to cancelled checks, paid bills, time and attendance records, contract and subcontract award documents.
• If an operator is authorized to charge fees to users, all fees charged to users are to be retained, separately accounted for, and used exclusively to defray these operation and maintenance costs of the facility and equipment funded by a grant under this program. Fee revenues in excess of funds necessary to operate and maintain facilities and equipment in any given calendar year shall revert to the state at the end of that calendar year for reinvestment in this grant program. Grant funds will be paid out by reimbursement only. Payment request will be accepted upon completion and inspection of the project.
• The grant award requires the grant recipient to obtain all required permits for the successful completion of the project.
• Grant recipients are required to register in the Ocean State Procures eProcurement System. To register as a grantee (vendor) please visit:  https://www.ridop.ri.gov/vendor-registration/. For more information about the Ocean State Procures System visit https://www.ridop.ri.gov/osp/whats-new.php.

Owners of any Rhode Island marina may apply for grants for projects located at the owner’s marina. Public entities such as cities or towns, harbor masters or other public agencies are also eligible to apply.  A non‐owner operator may apply for such a grant, but only if the owner counter signs the application and the grant award.

DEM has the authority to adjust grant awards so that no one community, water body, or marina receives a disproportionate amount of the available funding and that a geographic distribution of funds is achieved. All requests for proposals will be ranked following the established grant award criteria as outlined in Sect. 7.7 (B) of Title 250-RICR-150-20-7 Rules and Regulations for RI Clean Vessel Act Pump-out Grant Program.