The agreement provides funding to national rural water association

Specifically, the recipient will implement a 12-month nationwide technical assistance program specifically designed for tribes for planning, developing, and acquisition of finance/funding, to help improve water quality and achieve and maintain compliance. They will deploy water quality action specialists nationwide who will carry out 100 community-driven tribal wastewater solutions projects. These water quality action specialists will support communities with accessing funding sources, assessing climate risks, identifying health and environmental risks, and proposing solutions. National rural water association will produce 100 tribal community wastewater assessment reports as part of the community engagement process and implement 100 management activities defined within those reports. These community wastewater assessment reports will detail current wastewater conditions, challenges, steering committee-approved solutions, and action steps.activities:the activities include: 1. Implementing a well-defined, collaborative planning approach with tribal authorities and federal agencies to develop efficient and well-coordinated operation plans and effective communication protocols. 2. A. Deploying water quality action specialists nationwide to provide a minimum of 6,000 hours of technical assistance to tribal communities and wastewater utilities. B. Carry out 100 community-driven tribal wastewater solutions projects that include tribal community wastewater assessment reports. C. Work with local tribal steering committees to implement one recommendation from each community wastewater assessment report, resulting in the implementation of 100 activities. D. Promote national rural water association training classes and environmental protection agencies webinars, tools, and resources. E. Promote septicsmart resources and septicsmart week. Subrecipient:the majority of funds on this agreement will be delivered to subawards. The subawards will go to each of national rural water association's state affiliates in order to carry out the work on this grant. These funds will cover the cost of staff for onsite technical assistance in each state. Each state affiliate receiving funds will be responsible for sharing local knowledge on their states and creating state specific action plans. They will have the cultural competency and language fluency to effectively help communities in the geographic areas to be served. Each state affiliate will implement a well-defined consultation process with the navajo nation environmental protection agency (nnepa), indian health service (IHS), the bureau of indian affairs (BIA), and federal regulatory agencies. State affiliates will consult with tribal authorities and federal agencies to seek input in the development of operating plans and submit them to national rural water association within 45 days of the grant award. The operating plans will: (1) prioritize onsite technical assistance to tribal communities and systems that have never been on indian health service sanitation deficiency system priority lists and/or have never received clean water state revolving funds funding; (2) prioritize tribal disadvantaged and underserved systems most in need of technical assistance in planning, developing, and acquisition of finance; (3) describe the method and frequency of communication and information feedback on work performed; and (4) identify additional methods to notify tribally-owned systems of available assistance under the program. State affiliates will disseminate arcgis story maps, case studies, training materials, and resources via magazines, websites, e-newsletters, and social media.outcomes:the anticipated deliverables include 20 arcgis story maps, 20 case studies and their annual train-the-trainer event, as well as present at one conference. 100 tribal community wastewater assessment reports (1 for each community they work with).