Deadline: 25-Nov-24
The Environmental Protection Agency has launched the Training and Technical Assistance to Improve Water Quality and Enable Small Public Water Systems to Provide Safe Drinking Water.
EPA is seeking applications from organizations with a demonstrable history of providing effective, results-oriented technical assistance to public water systems
Objectives
- All communities deserve access to safe, clean, and reliable water. The EPA’s priority is to support training and technical assistance to communities of need and improve public health through enhancement of technical, managerial, and financial capacity, compliance, and drinking water infrastructure.
- The training and technical assistance will help ensure that communities that have historically struggled to access public funding receive the support they need. The EPA aims to maximize the potential for these funds to significantly benefit rural, small, or Tribal communities with training and technical assistance in their respective public waters systems.
- Applicants are encouraged to prioritize training and technical assistance that support environmental justice. Environmental justice is the fair treatment and meaningful involvement of all people regardless of race, color, national origin, or income, with respect to the development, implementation, and enforcement of environmental laws, regulations, and policies. This goal will be achieved when everyone enjoys:
- The same degree of protection from environmental and health hazards, and
- Equal access to the decision-making process to have a healthy environment in which to live, learn, and work
National Priority Areas
- If an applicant submits an application covering more than one National Priority Area, it will be rejected.
- National Priority Area 1: Training and Technical Assistance for Small Public Water Systems to Achieve and Maintain Compliance with the SDWA, including Improving Financial and Managerial Capacity
- Under this National Priority Area, the EPA is soliciting applications to provide training and technical assistance for small public water systems to enable such systems to achieve and maintain compliance with the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) and to build their financial and managerial capacity to provide safe drinking water over the long term. The ability for small systems to attain and maintain financial and managerial capacity is critical to ensuring that systems can reliably and sustainably provide safe water to its customers.
- Many small public water systems face challenges in reliably providing safe drinking water to their customers and consistently meeting the requirements of the SDWA and the National Primary Drinking Water Regulations (NPDWRs). These challenges include, but are not limited to:
- lack of adequate revenue or access to financing;
- aging infrastructure;
- retirement of experienced system operators and difficulty retaining current operators;
- difficulty training operators;
- managers and operators who lack the requisite financial, technical, or managerial skills;
- lack of planning for infrastructure upgrades or the ability to respond to and recover from natural disasters (e.g., floods or tornadoes);
- lack of planning for cybersecurity upgrades or the ability to respond to and recover from malevolent acts; and
- lack of understanding of existing or new regulatory requirements and treatment technologies
- National Priority Area 2: Training and Technical Assistance for Small Publicly-Owned Wastewater Systems and Onsite/Decentralized Wastewater Systems to Help Improve Water Quality and Sustainable Operations
- Under this National Priority Area, the EPA is soliciting applications to provide training and technical assistance to:
- small publicly-owned wastewater systems; and
- communities served by onsite/decentralized wastewater systems
- Under this National Priority Area, the EPA is soliciting applications to provide training and technical assistance to:
- National Priority Area 3: Training and Technical Assistance for Private Drinking Water Well Owners to Help Improve Water Quality
- Under this National Priority Area, the EPA is soliciting applications to provide training and technical assistance to private drinking water well owners. For the purposes of this announcement, a “private well” is defined as a well owned by a homeowner or group of homeowners that supplies drinking water to fewer than 25 people and contains fewer than 15 service connections.
- Applicants are encouraged to prioritize training and technical assistance that support environmental justice goals. Examples of eligible training and technical assistance activities for private drinking water wells that support this National Priority Area include, but are not limited to, the following:
- Developing or providing online and hard copy information and materials on topics of interest to private drinking water well owners, such as well construction, well maintenance and operation, well testing, ground water quality and protection, state regulations impacting private wells, water rights, and how to respond to well contamination emergencies.
- Providing information, technical assistance, and training to other organizations with activities that affect private drinking water well owners.
- Providing assistance with identifying funding sources.
- National Priority Area 1: Training and Technical Assistance for Small Public Water Systems to Achieve and Maintain Compliance with the SDWA, including Improving Financial and Managerial Capacity
Funding Information
- The total amount of federal funding potentially available under this announcement is approximately $30,700,000 depending on agency funding levels, the quality of applications received, agency priorities, and other applicable considerations.
- Applications for awards under National Priority Area 1 cannot exceed $13,000,000 in federal funds; applications for awards under National Priority Area 2 cannot exceed $1,250,000 in federal funds; and applications for awards under National Priority Area 3 cannot exceed $3,450,000.
Duration
- The project period is expected to be two years.
Eligibility Criteria
- Eligible Applicants Eligible applicants under this competition are nonprofit organizations, nonprofit private universities and colleges, and public institutions of higher education.
- For-profit organizations are not eligible to apply.
- States, municipalities, Tribal governments, and individuals are not eligible to apply. Nonprofit organizations of the Internal Revenue Code that engage in lobbying activities of the Lobbying Disclosure Act of 1995 are not eligible to apply.
- The EPA may ask applicants to demonstrate that they are eligible for funding under this announcement.
For more information, visit Grants.gov.