Modify Clean Water Act (CWA) Section 309 Grant Reporting and Tracking System (GRTS)
[Recommendation W18]

 

EPA took the following three steps to respond to the states' recommendations:

• At the national level, EPA’s Office of Grants and Debarment (OGD) issued an Agency-wide state grant reporting policy (PDF) (6pp, 65K).  Among other things, this policy:
  • Reduces quarterly grant progress reports to a frequency of no greater than semi-annually, except in instances of poor performers or where Regions and states have otherwise agreed. 
  • Reduces financial status reporting frequency to no more than annually.

• An XML upload process was released July 7, 2008, which addresses Maryland’s recommendation.  This upload process allows states to assemble GRTS data without being logged on.  States can then log on and upload files to GRTS directly.  This process cuts down on wait time and slow server issues which can occur if entering data one field at a time.  In addition, GRTS recently migrated to an Oracle-based database which streamlines data entry and minimizes server issues.

• Because EPA Regions play such an active role in Section 319 grant awards and reporting, Regions also responded to some of the states' recommendations. Region 1 responded to Massachusetts' request to reduce Section 319 implementation projects reporting to annually. Region 1 confirmed that the implementation projects report is only required annually; the due date is February 15th for all states in the Region. Finally, Region 8 is working with Montana and North Dakota to reduce GRTS reporting burden.