Rural communities nationwide to improve water systems with $30.7 million in federal funding

(UI) – The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced its selection of training and technical assistance providers who will receive $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.

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 will receive $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.

The University of New Mexico will receive $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.

The National Rural Water Association will receive $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.

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