Training and Technical Assistance to Improve Water Quality and Enable Small Public Water Systems to Provide Safe Drinking Water

All communities deserve access to safe, clean, and reliable water. The EPA’s priority is to support training and technical assistance to communities of need and improve public health through enhancement of technical, managerial, and financial capacity, compliance, and drinking water infrastructure. The training and technical assistance will help ensure that communities that have historically struggled to access public funding receive the support they need. The EPA aims to maximize the potential for these funds to significantly benefit rural, small, or Tribal communities with training and technical assistance in their respective public waters systems. Applicants are encouraged to prioritize training and technical assistance that support environmental justice. Environmental justice is the fair treatment and meaningful involvement of all people regardless of race, color, national origin, or income, with respect to the development, implementation, and enforcement of environmental laws, regulations, and policies. This goal will be achieved when everyone enjoys: • The same degree of protection from environmental and health hazards, and • Equal access to the decision-making process to have a healthy environment in which to live, learn, and work. Awards made through this NOFO are intended also to enable communities to comply with environmental regulations and build their technical, managerial, and financial capacity to sustainably operate drinking water infrastructure. Providing assistance in technical, managerial, and financial capacity building will allow communities to better protect both public health and the environment and support the Justice40 Initiative. With respect to this NOFO, the benefits as described under the Justice40 Initiative include training and technical assistance that support or aid improvements to communities and private well owners experiencing limited water and sanitation access and affordability and development of critical clean water and waste infrastructure. More information on the Justice40 initiative is available. The EPA encourages all eligible applicants to apply and recognizes that new applicants are essential to expanding the pool of service providers able to address the technical, managerial, and financial capacity needs of small drinking water systems, small publicly owned wastewater systems and onsite/decentralized wastewater systems and private well owners. New applicants may help to expand the pool and increase diversity in supporting projects that benefit rural, small, or Tribal communities. New applicants are applicants that have not received a Training and Technical Assistance to Improve Water Quality and Enable Small Public Water Systems to Provide Safe Drinking Water award from the EPA in the past two years. 4 The EPA is soliciting applications from eligible applicants for training and technical assistance projects in three National Priority Areas as discussed in further detail below. The EPA expects to make at least one award in each National Priority Area and may redistribute the awards per area based on the quality of applications received and other applicable considerations. Infrastructure projects such as repairing water or sewer lines, adding new equipment, or upgrading, retrofitting, or rehabilitating existing equipment, are not eligible for funding under this announcement.