Emergency Watershed Protection (EWP) Program

What is this program?

The EWP offers technical and financial assistance to help local communities relieve imminent threats to life and property caused by floods, fires, windstorms and other natural disasters that impair a watershed.

Managing USDA Agency	Type of Assistance	Who Should Apply	Learn More
NRCS	Financial and technical assistance for communities	NRCS must work with a project sponsor to provide EWP Program assistance. An eligible project sponsor must be a state, state agency, local government agency, Native American or Tribal organization	Visit

How can I use this program?

NRCS offers financial and technical assistance for various activities under the EWP Program, including:

Removing debris from stream channels, road culverts and bridges
Reshaping and protecting eroded streambanks
Correcting damaged or destroyed drainage facilities
Establishing vegetative cover on critically eroding lands
Repairing levees and structures
Repairing certain conservation practices
EWP property buyouts, and
Purchasing floodplain buyouts

The EWP Program cannot be used for any of the following:

To implement the same structural practice more than twice within 10 years
For existing operation and maintenance
To repair, rebuild, or maintain any transportation facilities, utilities, or similar facilities
Projects on Federal lands
To repair or rehabilitate nonstructural management practices
To repair coastal erosions to beaches, dunes, and shorelines, including those along the Great Lakes
Projects that are eligible for assistance by the Emergency Conservation Program (ECP)

Who or what is eligible and what are the eligibility requirements

Recovery Projects must be able to demonstrate that they:

Provide protection from flooding or soil erosion;
Reduce threats to life and property;
Restore the hydraulic capacity to the natural environment; and
Be economically and environmentally defensible.

Projects must have a local sponsor or legal subdivision of state or tribal government. Eligible sponsors include cities, counties, towns, conservation districts, or any federally recognized Native American tribe or tribal organization. Interested public and private landowners must work through a sponsor.

Are there any deadlines?

Formal requests for assistance are due 60 days from the disaster or 60 days from when the site becomes accessible.

Is there anything else I should know?

EWP does not require a disaster declaration by federal or state government officials for program assistance to begin.
The NRCS State Conservationist can declare a local watershed emergency and initiate EWP program assistance in cooperation with an eligible sponsor (see the Eligibility section above).
NRCS will not provide funding for activities undertaken by a sponsor prior to the signing of a cooperative agreement between NRCS and the sponsor.
EWP Cost Share: NRCS contribution toward the implementation of emergency measures may not exceed 75 percent of the construction cost, including work done to offset or mitigate adverse impacts as a result of the emergency measures. However, if NRCS determines that an area qualifies as a limited resource area, the Federal contribution toward the implementation of emergency measures may not exceed 90 percent of the construction cost of such emergency measures.