EPA to award $21.7 million in grants to support clean, safe water for rural communities

5/20/2022

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced its selection of technical assistance providers to receive $21.7 million in grant funding to support drinking water and wastewater systems that serve small and rural communities.

This technical assistance funding builds on the agency’s recent announcement of $68 million in available funding for technical assistance through the Environmental Finance Center program. EPA is committed to helping communities across America upgrade and maintain water systems that are essential to public health and environmental protection.

“Small towns and rural communities face significant challenges when it comes to operating and maintaining their water infrastructure that is often decades old and in urgent need of reinvestment,” said EPA Assistant Administrator for Water Radhika Fox. “EPA is committed to helping rural America thrive. With our support, small and rural communities will receive high quality technical assistance to improve operations and access the historic investment in water infrastructure through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.”

Many of the country’s water systems serve relatively small and rural communities. Approximately 97% of the nation’s 145,000 public water systems serve fewer than 10,000 people. More than 80% of these systems serve fewer than 500 people. Many small and rural systems face unique challenges — including aging infrastructure and workforce gaps — that create challenges — in providing reliable drinking water and wastewater services that meet federal and state requirements.

EPA is taking steps to provide technical assistance on water infrastructure to communities that need it most through programs like today’s funding announcement. Recipients will offer technical assistance to small public water systems to keep clean water flowing for rural communities by achieving and maintaining regulatory compliance. Technical assistance will include circuit-rider and multi-state regional technical assistance programs, training and site visits, and training or technical assistance to diagnose and trouble-shoot system operational and compliance-related problems and identify solutions.

EPA anticipates that it will award grants to the following recipients once all legal and administrative requirements are satisfied.

Rural Community Assistance Partnership

$11.2 million to provide training and technical assistance for small public water systems to achieve and maintain compliance with the Safe Drinking Water Act, including improving financial and managerial capacity.
$1 million to work with small publicly owned wastewater and on-site/decentralized wastewater systems to improve water quality.
$850,000 to work with private well owners to help improve water quality.

National Rural Water Association

$7.8 million to provide training and technical assistance for small public water systems to achieve and maintain compliance with the Safe Drinking Water Act, including improving financial and managerial capacity.
$850,000 to work with private well owners to help improve water quality.

For more information, visit the EPA Training and Technical Assistance for Small Systems Page.