The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) says $49 million in grant funding is now available to provide technical training assistance for rural, small and tribal communities facing wastewater challenges.
In a September 25 funding announcement, the EPA noted that many rural, small and tribal systems face unique financial and operational challenges, including aging infrastructure, workforce shortages, increasing costs, and declining rate bases.
More than one in five households in the U.S. still relies on septic systems and other decentralized systems, notes the grant announcement, which focuses on assistance to these communities. The Rural, Small, and Tribal Technical Assistance providers offer direct support to help build technical, managerial, and financial capacity to operate centralized and decentralized wastewater management systems.
The Rural, Small and Tribal Clean Water Technical Assistance Grant Program established in 2018 helps communities navigate the federal funding application process and strategically invest in reliable infrastructure solutions, while learning best practices for infrastructure management.
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“Our nation’s water infrastructure delivers clean drinking water to homes, schools and businesses and safely returns wastewater to the environment. But there are far too many people in this country dealing with broken, old or simply non-existent water infrastructure,” announced the EPA’s Principal Deputy Assistant Administrator for Water, Bruno Pigott, in a statement.
EPA is accepting grant applications until November 25.
