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Building the Capacity of Drinking Water Systems

FY 2020 Training and Technical Assistance to Improve Water Quality and Enable Small Public Water Systems to Provide Safe Drinking Water

EPA’s Fiscal Year 2020 appropriation directs the Agency to competitively award over $17 million to nonprofit organizations, nonprofit private universities and colleges, and public institutions of higher education to provide training and technical assistance to small public water systems, small wastewater systems and private well owners, located in urban and rural communities throughout the U.S. and its territories.

The funding will help provide training and technical assistance to small public water systems so that they can operate and maintain their systems to achieve and maintain compliance with the SDWA; to build their financial and managerial capacity to provide safe drinking water over the long term; to improve water quality and sustainable operations; and to improve water quality.  The emphasis of the training and tools assist towards enhancing system operations and management practices, while supporting EPA’s continuing efforts to protect public health and promote sustainability in small communities.

EPA expects to award three to nine cooperative agreements totaling up to $17 million in federal funds.  The purpose of the agreements is to provide training and technical assistance to:

  • Small public water systems to achieve and maintain compliance with the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA), including managerial and/or financial capacity;
  • Small publicly-owned wastewater systems, communities served by onsite-decentralized wastewater systems to help improve water quality; or
  • Private well owners to help improve water quality.
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