Grant Profile: Well Sealing

Grant Description

Well Sealing grants are made to local units of government to ensure compliance with Minnesota Statutes Chapter 103E (Drainage Law) and Sections 103F.401 to 103F.455 (state Soil Erosion Control provisions), including enforcement efforts. These grants are funded through the competitive Clean Water Fund application process. The purpose of these grants is to restore and protect surface water quality, particularly Impaired Waters, and to supplement local efforts to sustain clean water in Minnesota, by applying existing soil erosion reduction and drainage ditch statutes.
 

Reporting Overview

A workplan must be approved before work can begin on this grant. The workplan should be developed in eLINK using the activities proposed in the application, although BWSR may require additional details at this stage.  The workplan will lock upon submittal to BWSR for approval, preventing edits to the approved budget but allowing you to enter expenses and reporting details as work is completed.

Grant recipients are required to report on grant outcomes, activities, and accomplishments in eLINK according to the requirements outlined in the grant agreement and policies within BWSR’s Grants Administration Manual.  Clean Water Fund grant agreements stipulate that the grantee must “comply with requirements for project signage.” The logo may be displayed on legacy-funded construction projects; at access points to any land or water resources restored, protected, or enhanced through Legacy funds; or on printed and other materials funded with money from one or more of the funds. The Legacy logo should be prominently displayed on the grantee’s website.
 

eLINK Reporting Requirements

Reporting Activities and Activity Details

When reviewing reports for Well Sealing grants, the most important project outcomes BWSR and MDH program staff are looking for is the number of wells sealed, and where those projects occurred. The guidance below allows program staff to quickly identify these details for each grant, and to query eLINK for aggregate practice counts and spatial data across multiple grants. It should also simplify the time needed for the grantee to complete reporting.
 

It is recommended that you minimize the number of Activities, and instead break out individual projects at the Activity Detail level. This will allow you to easily transfer application activities to your workplan, and simplify reporting. For example, you may have a “Well Sealing” Activity with both Current State Grant and Local Fund landowner budget rows, and an Administrative” Activity, as shown in the example below:

Individual landowner projects can then be tracked at the Activity Detail level; entering one Activity Detail per project allows you to accurately enter the Installed Date for each project. The “Count” header in the Activity Details summary grid should be equal to the number shown under “Mapped” and “Indicators”, indicating you have mapped any/all projects and entered pollution reduction indicators. Within the Edit screen (  ), select Practice type “351 - Well Decommissioning”, and enter the Count of Activities. Under the required field “Proposed Size”, enter the number of well sealing activities proposed in the initial application; for Unit type, select “Count”. Map (  ) the location of each well sealed.

When reporting Indicators (), select the category “Pollution Prevention”, Name & Units type “Prevention – Count”, and enter the count of wells sealed, as shown below:

Expenditures are tracked at the Activity level. When reporting expenditures related to a specific landowner project, including the landowner name in the description (e.g. “John Doe – Check #8873”) allows program staff to track expenditures to the specific project listed in the Activity Details when reviewing and approving reports.