RMWD to pursue CalFire vegetation management grant

Joe Naiman

Village News Reporter

The Rainbow Municipal Water District will be seeking a grant from the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection to fund vegetation management.

A 5-0 Rainbow board vote April 25 approved the filing of an application for a grant from the California Climate Investments Wildfire Prevention Grants Program. The board action also authorized Rainbow General Manager Tom Kennedy or his designee to conduct all negotiations and to execute all necessary documents including amendments.

“That’s to get funds for fire prevention around our facilities,” Kennedy said.

CalFire’s Wildfire Prevention Grants Program has $115,000,000 in grant funds available for fiscal year 2022-23. Up to $5,000,000 may be awarded to a qualifying public entity.

Rainbow spends approximately $200,000 annually on vegetation management. “This will help defray some of those costs,” Kennedy said.

The grant funding requires a 10% agency match, and Rainbow would use funding in the district’s 2022-23 budget allocated for vegetation mitigation to fund the match requirement.

Rainbow would use the grant funding to create defensible spaces around critical water facilities including seven pump stations, 13 water tank sites, four reservoirs and associated access roads, and approximately 15 to 20 water easements on private residential properties.