Technical Assistance for Treatment Works (Clean Water Act [CWA] Section 104(b)(8))

The objective is to provide technical assistance and training to rural, small, and tribal municipalities to: (1) plan, develop, and obtain financing for Clean Water State Revolving Fund (CWSRF) eligible projects; (2) protect water quality and achieve

Clean Water Act section 104(b)(8) statutory authority supports: (1) technical assistance to rural, small, and tribal municipalities for planning, developing, and obtaining financing for CWSRF-eligible projects and activities; (2) technical assistance and training for rural, small, and tribal publicly owned treatment works and decentralized wastewater treatment systems to protect water quality and achieve and maintain compliance with Clean Water Act requirements; and (3) providing information on planning, design, construction, and operation of publicly owned treatment works and decentralized wastewater treatment systems to rural, small, and tribal municipalities that meet the state's affordability criteria. This program supports rural, small and Tribal communities specifically with their wastewater infrastructure needs and supports communities on decentralized systems which often get overlooked.

Assistance under this program is generally available to public or private nonprofit organizations, subject to CWA 104(w), and the regulations at 2 CFR 200. Nonprofit organization, as defined by 2 CFR Part 200, means any corporation, trust, association, cooperative or other organization that: (1) is operated primarily for scientific, educational, service, charitable or similar purposes in the public interest; (2) is not organized primarily for profit; and (3) uses its net proceeds to maintain, improve and/or expand its operations. Note that 2 CFR Part 200 specifically excludes the following types of organizations from the definition of nonprofit organization because they are separately defined in the regulation: (i) institutions of higher education; and (ii) state, local and federally-recognized Indian tribal governments. Institutions of Higher Education are defined at 20 U.S.C. 1001. Nonetheless, institutions of higher education who otherwise qualify as nonprofit organizations are eligible to apply as indicated in the Office of Management and Budget's July 2017 Frequent Questions on the Uniform Grant Guidance. Nonprofit organizations described in Section 501(c)(4) of the Internal Revenue Code that engage in prohibited lobbying activities as defined in Section 3 of the Lobbying Disclosure Act of 1995 are not eligible to apply. Institutions of Higher Education and Hospitals are not eligible. For certain competitive funding opportunities under this assistance listing, the Agency may limit eligibility to compete to a number or subset of eligible applicants consistent with the Agency's Assistance Agreement Competition Policy.

Grants and cooperative agreements are available to support recipients' allowable direct costs in approved scopes of work plus allowable indirect costs, in accordance with established EPA policies and regulations. Funds may be used to support: (1) training to operators, staff, managers on the sustainable and effective management of small wastewater treatment systems; (2) assist operators to manage small wastewater treatment systems to achieve compliance; and (3) perform onsite training or technical solutions that focus on improving performance at local facilities. Specific uses and restrictions on funds will be described in detail in the competitive announcements. Assistance agreement awards under this program may involve or relate to geospatial information. Further information regarding geospatial information may be obtained by viewing the following website: Geospatial Resources at EPA. This program makes Federal awards on a discretionary basis. A discretionary award means an award in which the Federal awarding agency, in keeping with specific statutory authority that enables the agency to exercise judgement ("discretion"), selects the recipient and/or the amount of Federal funding awarded through a competitive process or based on merit of proposals. A discretionary award may be selected on a non-competitive basis, as appropriate. For further information, please contact the Headquarters or regional office.

The term of the grant shall be determined at the time of grant award.

EPA awards grants and cooperative agreements based on competitive applications submitted in response to EPA solicitations, considering relevance and likelihood of success of proposed projects. Regarding pre-application assistance with respect to competitive funding opportunities under this program description, EPA will generally specify the nature of the pre-application assistance, if any, that will be available to applicants in the NOFO. For additional information, contact the individual(s) listed in the NOFO.

The evaluation and selection criteria for competitive awards under this assistance listing description will be described in the competitive announcement.

For competitive awards, EPA will review and evaluate applications in accordance with the terms, conditions, and criteria stated in the competitive announcement. Competitions will be conducted in accordance with EPA policies/regulations for competing assistance agreements.

For competitive awards, deadlines will be specified in the NOFO.

Assistance agreement competition-related disputes will be resolved in accordance with the dispute resolution procedures published in 70 FR (Federal Register) 3629, 3630 (January 26, 2005). Copies of these procedures may also be found at: https://www.epa.gov/grants/grant-competition-dispute-resolution-procedures. Disputes relating to matters other than the competitive selection of recipients will be resolved under 2 CFR 1500 Subpart E, as applicable.