Community Conservation Assistance Program

Requests are being accepted for Fall 2024, and are ranked based on local water quality priorities. If selected, landowners may receive a reimbursement up to 75 percent of the actual cost of the BMP, based on the state's annual cost list. The deadline for requests is September 5, 2024. Please fill out this form and return it to Charlie Sanders. 

The Community Conservation Assistance Program (CCAP) is a voluntary, incentive-based program designed to improve water quality through the installation of various best management practices (BMPs) on urban, suburban and rural lands not directly involved with agriculture production.  Interested landowners may apply for financial and technical assistance for the installation of BMPs. Applications are ranked based on water quality priorities set by the Dare Soil & Water Conservation Board, and if eligible a conservation plan is prepared. Landowners may receive financial assistance of up to 75 percent of the actual cost of the BMP. 

Eligible BMPs include:

• Abandoned Well Closure
  • The sealing and permanent closure of a supply well no longer in use. This practice serves to prevent entry of contaminated surface water, animals, debris or other foreign substances into the well. It also serves to eliminate the physical hazards of an open hole to people, animals and machinery.
• Rain Garden
  • A shallow depression in the ground that captures runoff from a driveway, roof or lawn and allows it to soak into the ground, rather than running across roads, capturing pollutants and delivering them to a stream. The rain garden absorbs and filters pollutants and returns cleaner water through the ground to nearby streams. Rain gardens can also reduce flooding by sending the water back underground, rather than into the street.
• Stormwater Wetland
  • Constructed systems that mimic the functions of natural wetlands and are designed to mitigate the impacts of urbanization on stormwater quality and quantity. Stormwater wetlands provide an efficient method for removing a wide variety of pollutants such as suspended solids, nutrients (nitrogen and phosphorus), heavy metals, toxic organic pollutants, and petroleum compounds.
• Bioretention Area
  • The use of plants and soils for removal of pollutants from stormwater runoff. Bioretention can also be effective in reducing peak runoff rates, runoff volumes and recharging groundwater by infiltrating runoff.
• Cistern
  • Above or below ground storage tanks for rainwater harvesting systems used to collect and store rainwater.  They are intended to reduce stormwater runoff, encourage runoff infiltration and conserve water.
• Critical Area Planting
  • An area of highly erodible land that cannot be stabilized by ordinary conservation treatment on which permanent perennial vegetative cover is established and protected to improve water quality. Benefits may include reduced soil erosion and sedimentation. 
• Diversion
  • A channel constructed across a slope with a supporting ridge on the lower side to control drainage by diverting excess water from an area to improve water quality.  Benefits may include reduced soil erosion, sedimentation and pollution from dissolved and sediment-attached substances. 
• Grassed Swale
  • A natural or constructed channel that is shaped or graded to required dimensions and established in suitable vegetation for the stable conveyance of runoff to improve water quality.  Benefits may include reduced soil erosion, sedimentation and pollution from dissolved and sediment attached substances. 
• Impervious Surface Conversion
  • Impervious surfaces are covered by impenetrable materials such as asphalt, concrete, brick and stone.  These materials seal surfaces, repel water and prevent precipitation from infiltrating soils.  Removal of these impervious materials, when combined with permeable pavement or vegetation establishment, is intended to reduce stormwater runoff rate and volume, as well as associated pollutants transported from the site by stormwater runoff.
• Marsh Sill
  • A coast-parallel, long or short structure built with the objective of reducing the wave action on the shoreline by forcing wave breaking over the sill. Sills are used to provide protection for existing coastal marshes, or to retain sandy fill between the sill and the eroding shoreline, to establish suitable elevations for the restoration or establishment of coastal marsh and/or riparian vegetation.
• Permeable Pavement
  • An alternative to conventional concrete and asphalt paving materials that allows rapid infiltration of stormwater. Stormwater infiltrates into a porous paving material that provides temporary storage until the water infiltrates into underlying permeable soils or through an underground drain system. This practice is intended to reduce stormwater runoff rate and volume, as well as associated pollutants transported from the site by stormwater runoff.
• Pet Waste Receptacles
  • A container that encourages pet owners to pick up after their animals in parks, neighborhoods and apartment complexes so as to prevent waste from transported off-site by stormwater runoff.
• Riparian Buffer
  • An area of perennial, long-lived vegetative cover (grass, shrubs, trees, or a combination of vegetation types) established adjacent to and up-gradient from watercourses or water bodies to improve water quality. Benefits may include reduced soil erosion and nutrient delivery, sedimentation, pathogen contamination and pollution from dissolved, particulate and sediment-attached substances.
• Stream Restoration
  • The use of bioengineering practices, native material revetments, channel stability structures and/or the restoration or management of riparian corridors in order to protect upland BMPs, restore the natural function of the stream corridor and improve water quality by reducing sedimentation to streams from streambank.
• Streambank and Shoreline Protection
  • The use of vegetation to stabilize and protect banks of streams, lakes, estuaries or excavated channels against scour and erosion. This practice should be used to prevent the loss of land or damage to utilities, roads, buildings or other facilities adjacent to the banks, to maintain the capacity of the channel, to control channel meander that would adversely affect downstream facilities, to reduce sediment load causing downstream damages and pollution or to improve the stream for recreation or fish and wildlife habitat.
• Structural Stormwater Conveyances
  • Various techniques to divert runoff from paved surfaces where a vegetated diversion is not feasible. The purpose is to direct stormwater runoff (sheet flow or concentrated) away from a direct discharge point and divert it to an approved BMP or naturally vegetated area capable of removing nutrients through detention, filtration, or infiltration. This may be accomplished through the use of the following: curb cuts, trench drains, raised concrete or asphalt areas in parking lots, earthen berms or check dams.

To apply, contact Charlie Sanders at (252) 475-5853 or charlie.sanders@darenc.gov.

Agriculture Cost Share Program

The Agriculture Cost Share Program helps address nonpoint source pollution by providing technical and financial resources. The major cause of water quality problems in North Carolina and in much of the United States is nonpoint source pollution. In many places, damage to our water resources comes from soil erosion, excessive fertilizer use, animal waste contamination, and improper use of agricultural chemicals. If you are a landowner or renter of an existing agricultural operation that has been operating for more than three years, you are eligible to participate in the North Carolina Agriculture Cost Share Program. The District works with agricultural landowners and renters to:

• Develop and approve individual conservation plans
• Identify the best management practices (BMPs) best suited for your particular operation
• Design BMPs and help ensure their longevity
• Acquire preliminary approval of a Cost Share contract

Submit an application to Charlie Sanders at (252) 475-5853 or charlie.sanders@darenc.gov. The applications are ranked based on resource concerns identified by the Dare Soil & Water Conservation Board. Applicants can be reimbursed up to 75 percent of a predetermined average cost for each BMP installed. The applicant is responsible for 25 percent of the costs. This may include the use of existing material and labor.

The purposes of the AgWRAP are to:

• Identify opportunities to increase water use efficiency, availability and storage
• Implement best management practices (BMPs) to conserve and protect water resources
• Increase water use efficiency
• Increase water storage and availability for agricultural purposes

Best Management Practices eligible for AgWRAP include:

• Agricultural Water Supply/Reuse Pond
  Construct agricultural ponds for water supply for irrigation or livestock watering.
• Agricultural Pond Repair/Retrofit
  Repair or retrofit of existing agricultural pond systems.
• Agricultural Pond Sediment Removal
  Remove sediment from existing agricultural ponds to increase water storage capacity.
• Agricultural Water Collection and Reuse System
  Construct an agricultural water management and/or collection system for water reuse
  or irrigation for agricultural operations.
• Baseflow Interceptor
  Improve springs seeps alongside a stream, near banks, but not in the channel by
  excavating, cleaning, capping to collect and store water for agricultural use.
• Conservation Irrigation Conversion
  Modify an existing overhead spray irrigation system to increase the efficiency and
  uniformity of irrigation water application.
• Micro-Irrigation System
  Replace an existing irrigation system with a micro-irrigation system for frequent
  application of small quantities of water improving efficiency.
• Water Supply Well
  Construct a drilled, driven or dug well to supply water from an underground source for
  irrigation, livestock and poultry, aquaculture or on-farm processing.

Submit an application to Charlie Sanders at (252) 475-5853 or charlie.sanders@darenc.gov. The applications are ranked based on resource concerns identified by the Dare Soil & Water Conservation Board. Applicants can be reimbursed up to 75 percent of a predetermined average cost for each BMP installed. The applicant is responsible for 25 percent of the costs. This may include the use of existing material and labor.

For more information on cost share programs visit the state's Division of Soil and Water Conservation website.