WASHINGTON – Today, May 21, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced its selection of training and technical assistance providers who will have $30.7 million to support water systems and private well owners in small and rural communities. This grant funding will support water systems with building technical, financial, and managerial capacity and will also assist private well owners with improving water quality, including actions such as testing for PFAS contamination.
“At EPA we know too many communities struggle to access funding for critical water infrastructure projects so that they can meet basic wastewater and drinking water needs. For years, EPA has worked with nonprofit technical assistance providers to help these communities solve water challenges and access funding,” said Acting Assistant Administrator Bruno Pigott. “The Biden-Harris Administration is committed to making progress on water infrastructure by investing unprecedented dollars through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, and these technical assistance providers are helping the communities that need it most access that funding.”
Since 2012, this grant has provided over $170 million in funding to technical assistance and training providers. These providers meet communities where they are and help them with water infrastructure challenges through circuit-rider and multi-state regional technical assistance programs, training and site visits, and focused efforts to diagnose and trouble-shoot system operational and compliance-related problems and identify solutions.
The selected recipients of this year’s funding are:
Rural Community Assistance Partnership
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$13 million to provide training and technical assistance for small public water systems to achieve and maintain compliance with the Safe Drinking Water Act, including assisting communities in conducting lead service line inventories and providing training on cyber-security.
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$3.4 million to work with private well owners to help improve water quality including testing for PFAS contamination.
University of New Mexico
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$5 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.
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$1.2 million to work with small publicly owned wastewater and on-site/decentralized wastewater systems to improve water quality.
National Rural Water Association
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$7.9 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 and assisting systems in identifying and responding to potential cybersecurity threats.
EPA’s free Water Technical Assistance (WaterTA) also provides services that support communities to identify water challenges, develop plans, build capacity, and develop application materials to access water infrastructure funding. WaterTA’s services will build the technical, managerial, and financial capacity of water utilities, and enables them to have the capability to maintain regulatory compliance, improve resiliency, and sustainably provide safe drinking water to their communities.