In collaboration with its partners, rcap will provide technical, managerial, and financial capacity-building training and technical assistance for operators, board members, and managers of tribal…

The Rural Community Assistance Partnership Incorporated (RCAP) was awarded a $12.32 million project grant from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Office of Water under the Surveys, Studies, Investigations, Demonstrations, and Training Grants program (CFDA 66.424).

RCAP will provide technical assistance, training, and capacity building for operators, managers, and board members of small community water systems, non-transient non-community water systems, and transient non-community water systems. Training will be delivered in-person and remotely across all 50 states, five U.S. territories, and tribal communities. RCAP aims to increase regulatory compliance and long-term sustainability among small public water systems through this funding, which supports activities from October 1, 2022 through March 31, 2024. Subawards will fund personnel, fringe benefits, contractual services, travel, supplies and other costs to further these efforts.

In collaboration with its partners, rcap will provide technical, managerial, and financial capacity-building training and technical assistance for operators, board members, and managers of tribal and non-tribal small community water systems, non-transient non-community water systems, and transient non-community water systems with the objective of protecting human health through improved compliance and long-term system sustainability. The end results will include an increased number of small public water systems in regulatory compliance or making substantial progress toward compliance; increased knowledge and competency of operators, managers, and board members; increased number of operators acquiring, maintaining, and advancing their certification; and an increase in the number of systems that have adopted sustainable finance and management practices.activities:through its network of more than 300 field-based staff and project partners, the rcap team will provide training in all 50 states, the 5 US territories, and in tribal communities using both in-person and remote/online methods. Rcap will deploy training methods that include: 1) traditional in-person, instructor-led training; 2) live, instructor-led online training; 3) webinar presentations offered live and recorded for later on-demand viewing; 4) microlearning (short pieces of on-demand contact that can be quickly and conveniently consumed); and 5) elearning, which includes online/on-demand self-paced modules. Rcap will also develop blended learning trainings that combine self-paced, on-demand materials with live, instructor-led training. Subrecipient:the subawards will be used to fund personnel, fringe benefits, contractual, travel, supplies, and other direct costs. Outcomes:the intended beneficiaries include: operators, board members, and managers of tribal and non-tribal small community water systems, non-transient non-community water systems, and transient non-community water systems. This project will produce the following outcomes: - increased number of small public water systems (non-tribal, tribal, CWS/ncws) in compliance with sdwa or making substantial progress toward compliance as indicated by measured performance, reduced enforcement priority status, or other indicators in the DCS and final TMF assessments; - increased number of systems that have adopted sustainable or resilient management practices as a part of their operations and management practices; - increased TMF capacity of small system operators and managers to diagnose and correct the causes for compliance failures and to increase sustainability and resiliency; - increased knowledge and competency of board members to maintain compliance and to sustain systems over time; - increased number of systems with updated certified risk and resilience assessments and emergency response plans as required by awia section 2013 for systems serving over 3,300 population; and - increased number of small systems working together in all possible forms of utility partnership to improve efficiencies that ultimately assist with regulatory compliance, sustainability, and improved public health.