The agreement provides funding to the rural community assistance partnership, INC. (rcap)

This Project Grant award from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) under the Technical Assistance for Treatment Works program (CFDA 66.446) provides $3,000,000 in funding to the Rural Community Assistance Partnership, Inc. (RCAP) to deliver technical assistance and training to owners, operators, and managers of small publicly owned treatment works (POTWs) and onsite/decentralized wastewater systems.

The activities include in-person and remote capacity building in technical, managerial, and financial areas for these small water systems, with a focus on improving compliance, sustainability, public and environmental health, and water quality. RCAP will coordinate this work through a network of over 300 technical assistance providers, as well as engage other sub-awardee organizations to assist with developing training materials and implementing the program nationwide. The award period runs from September 1, 2023 to September 30, 2026.

Specifically, the recipient will provide in-person and remote training and technical assistance (TA) to owners, operators, and managers of small publicly owned treatment works (potws) and onsite/decentralized wastewater systems and the communities they serve. TA and training will build technical, managerial, and financial capacity and will stress the impact of wastewater discharges on watersheds, as well as the basics of treatment, regulations, operations, and management responsibilities. The end goal is to improve compliance and long-term financial sustainability, thereby improving public and environmental health, compliance, and water quality.activities:the activities include a holistic approach to technical assistance and training. Rcap will provide multi-contact, in-depth TA and training through more than 300 technical assistance providers (taps) that work in every state, the U.S. Territories, and on tribal lands. The type, topic, and location of training and TA activities will include a range of technical, managerial, and financial (TMF) capacity building strategies and will be decided in collaboration with the responsible state/territory/tribal primacy agencies. In addition, rcap will utilize its extensive outreach and information resources, as well as those of its partners, to disseminate key information, tools, and resources for potw and onsite/decentralized systems and small, rural and tribal communities including opportunities for TA, training, and funding. TA and training will stress the impact of wastewater discharges on watersheds, as well as the basics of treatment, regulations, operations, and management responsibilities. Rcap will also specifically provide training to homeowners, realtors, community leaders/elected officials, environmental health professionals, and planners on issues related to onsite/decentralized wastewater system types, cost, operations, and management. Technical assistance will involve conducting an initial TMF needs assessment where appropriate; developing a community workplan based on the needs identified; providing tools and resources from rcap, EPA, and other sources; conducting multiple site visits, phone calls, and other correspondence; working to resolve identified issues; completing a final TMF assessment when the project is completed, if applicable; and reporting on the details and results of each TA project. Training will be provided via a blended learning approach that will include face-to-face training, instructor-led online training, webinars, web-accessible self-paced modules, and anywhere/anytime resources.subrecipient:rcap has assembled a strong network of partner organizations committed to collaborating on this project. Within this proposal, rcap will serve as the direct recipient of the grant, and all other partnering organizations listed will be grant subrecipients. Rcap will convene and oversee collaborative project efforts through consistent communication with all partners. The sub-awardees will each use their funding for typical costs associated with TA and training and information dissemination such as salaries and benefits, travel, and normal operating expenses. The first six sub-awardees are communities unlimited (CU), great lakes community action partnership (glcap), midwest assistance project (map), rcap solutions (rsol), rural community assistance corporation (rcac), southeast rural community assistance project (sercap), who will provide the majority of on the ground TA and training deliverables, as well as informing national products and processes such as the updated and translated non-operators guide to wastewater and actively participating in the new resiliency, disaster and climate working group. Additionally, the national onsite wastewater recycling association (nowra) will be focused on the development of materials and implementation of training on workfor