The agreement provides funding to northern nevada institute for public health (doing business as (DBA) the nevada public health institute), grant recipient

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) awarded a $500,000 Environmental Justice Collaborative Problem-Solving (EJCPS) Cooperative Agreement to the Northern Nevada Institute for Public Health (doing business as the Nevada Public Health Institute). The grant supports the organization's efforts to conduct water quality assessments for private well owners in rural Nevada areas not regularly monitored, improve education and resources related to water quality, and develop a community-driven action plan for sustaining water quality services. Key activities include: establishing a steering committee to plan the water quality assessment, training community health workers to collect and analyze 200 water samples, and creating a sustainable plan for ongoing monitoring. This project aims to address environmental justice issues and improve public health outcomes in underserved rural communities through a collaborative, data-driven approach. The grant period runs from November 2024 to March 2025.

Specifically, the northern nevada institute for public health aims to conduct water quality assessments for private well owners in rural areas that are not monitored, to improve education and resources related to water quality, and to develop community-driven actions plan that with strategies for continued improvement of water quality assessments in the future. This agreement provides full federal funding in the amount of $500,000. Refer to terms and conditions. ACTIVITIES:the northern nevada institute for public health (grant recipient) ACTIVITIES to achieve include: 1) create partnership for water quality improvement in rural areas, 2) conduct water quality assessments, and 3) build a sustainable action plan for routine water quality services. The grant recipient will implement three key ACTIVITIES: (a) build a steering committee to collaborate and plan for implementation of the routine water quality assessment in the area; (B) develop the scope for the water quality assessments and secure qualified, well-trained human community health workers (CHWS) on water quality assessment and sampling. This will include knowledge on water quality standards, properly collecting the water samples from 200 residents, and transferring them to the nevada state public health laboratory, who will then test the samples. The sample analysis provided by the nevada state public health lab covers a routine domestic panel that measures the following contaminants: alkalinity, arsenic, barium, boron, calcium, chloride, color, copper, electrical conductivity, fluoride, hardness, iron, magnesium, manganese, nitrate as N, PH, potassium, silica, sodium, sulfate, TDS, turbidity, and zinc. The nevada state public health lab will provide all materials necessary to collect and store the samples prior to analysis. The training of CHWS will be updated with the feedback of CHWS after their field work starts. The feedback from water quality ACTIVITIES in the field will help to make realistic human resource plan. During the CHWS field work (during the collection of water samples), they will conduct surveys (information collection surveys), approved by EPA, on the community's perception and knowledge to understand the problems and barriers to providing healthy water for the rural communities. The CHWS will also aim to be an information source on water quality for the rural residents, if needed. (C) the third activity will develop a sustainable program to ensure water quality services are routinely available to rural areas. Subrecipient:there will be a subaward to the larson institute. The larson institute will lead development of survey instruments and data collection forms, be responsible for providing training to community health workers, and will prepare reports/dashboards as requested by the steering committee, and will develop the sustainability plan. Outcomes:the northern nevada institute for public health recipient will implement three key deliverables (ACTIVITIES): (a) build a steering committee to collaborate and plan for implementation of the routine water quality assessment in the area; (B) develop the scope for the water quality assessments, secure qualified, well-trained human community health workers (CHWS) on water quality assessment and sampling, and collect and analyze water samples from 200 residents thru analysis with the nevada state public health laboratory. The sample analysis measures the following contaminants: alkalinity, arsenic, barium, boron, calcium, chloride, color, copper, electrical conductivity, fluoride, hardness, iron, magnesium, manganese, nitrate as N, PH, potassium, silica, sodium, sulfate, TDS, turbidity, and zinc. (C) develop a sustainable program to ensure water quality services are routinely available to rural areas. The expected outcom