This project will facilitate state identification and implementation of improvements to clean water programs including national pollutant discharge elimination system, total maximum daily load,…

This project will facilitate state identification and implementation of improvements to clean water programs including national pollutant discharge elimination system, total maximum daily load, water quality monitoring and assessment, nonpoint source, effluent guidelines, water quality standards, and no discharge zones to more effectively protect public health and the environment. The grantee will also promote knowledge transfer to states and state-to-state information exchange. These efforts to represent and advise on behalf of states will further a shared state/EPA strategic vision and identification of priority areas for the focus of the nation's clean water act programs. These efforts will also ensure that state water regulators are fully informed of regulatory, policy, and programmatic initiatives so that they are better prepared to effectively manage their clean water act programs.activities:the activities to be performed under the cooperative agreement are for the association of clean water administrators to provide training, technical assistance, research and studies to support state surface water protection programs in meeting the requirements of the clean water act to protect human health and the environment. The five major components of the proposed project are to: 1) provide guidance and technical assistance to the states; 2) coordinate training opportunities leading to knowledge transfer and capacity building among state surface water protection agencies and EPA; 3) conduct research and studies that will enable acwa to represent and advise states; 4) annually support several programmatic meetings per year to increase state capacity and knowledge transfer; and 5) provide state travel expense reimbursement in support of trainings and technical assistance opportunities for state personnel.subrecipient:no subawards are included in this assistance agreement.outcomes:the anticipated deliverables and expected outcomes, and intended beneficiaries of this project follow: (1) provide guidance and technical assistance to the states (intended beneficiaries: state surface water protection agencies and general public): anticipated outputs: - enhance state environmental justice, equity, and civil rights efforts in drafting rules, guidance and permits, compliance assistance, and by enforcement. - increase the use of environmental justice tools such as the environmental justice screening and mapping tool (ejscreen). - develop an environmental justice toolkit for the making a visible difference in communities initiative advanced by the urban waters federal partnership. - support sustainable and resilient water infrastructure through EPA's infrastructure assistance programs, including the bipartisan infrastructure investment and jobs act of 2021 (IIJA), state revolving funds, and the water infrastructure finance and innovation act (wifia). - implement actions under the national water reuse action plan. - develop human and aquatic life health guidance, criteria, standards, and technical support materials and detection methods for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS). - foster progress in addressing national water quality initiative (nwqi) watersheds and inter-program collaboration between states, EPA, and USDA's natural resources conservation service to support the nonpoint source programs. - facilitate state data reporting using EPA's data reporting systems for surface water protection programs, including npdes ereporting, tmdl tracking and implementation system, water quality monitoring water quality exchange, and nonpoint source grants reporting and tracking system. - maintain an on-going dialogue between EPA and state CO-regulators to coordinate multi-year state and EPA evaluations of policies and initiatives for combined sewer overflows, sanitary sewer overflows, peak flows, blending, integrated planning, and stormwater runof