Small Communities Team
1999 Accomplishment Report

(Wastewater lagoon and wildlife area)

Alaska Native Village (ANVs) Sanitation Grant Program
Congress and EPA created this grant program in 1995 to help ANVs and rural Alaska communities fund construction of drinking water and wastewater sanitation facilities. Of the 268 communities in Alaska, 192 are considered ANVs. More than half of these villages have unacceptable drinking water and wastewater sanitation systems to service their residents (about 75,000 people). In some villages, the occurrence of fecal contamination and communicable disease is quite high. Most of these villages have only basic sanitation systems, such as pit privies or "honey bucket" haul systems as the sole means of sewage collection and disposal. As of FY 1999, $90 million has been made available for more than 185 sanitation systems in these communities and villages. The State of Alaska has provided matching funds equivalent to EPA's investment. The FY 1999 accomplishments include the following:

• Fifty-one (51) drinking water and wastewater sanitation systems were funded with the $30 million provided for Alaska rural and native communities.

U.S. / Mexico Tribal Border Grant Program
Funding for Indian tribes within 100 kilometers (62 miles) of the United States-Mexico border was appropriated by Congress in 1996 to assist tribes with the planning, design, and/or construction of high-priority drinking water and wastewater treatment projects. Approximately $22 million has been made available to address the pressing need for infrastructure financing on Indian reservations and on a number of Indian lands along the border. Twenty-two projects have been funded. The FY 1999 accomplishment include the following:

• Seven projects received grant funding totaling $3.9 million.

U.S. Colonias Wastewater Assistance Program
Colonias are impoverished communities along the United States-Mexico border which evolved when developers sold small tracts on marginal land in unincorporated subdivisions to low-income farm workers who could not afford better housing. Unacceptable environmental and sanitation conditions, including a lack of safe drinking water and wastewater treatment services, have caused a high rate of hepatitis A and gastrointestinal diseases in these communities. Approximately 1,200 Colonias, with a total population exceeding 300,000, have been identified in Texas and New Mexico. A few also exist in Arizona and possibly in California. In 1993, EPA began awarding grants to Texas and New Mexico to construct wastewater facilities and alleviate these unsanitary conditions.

(Unidentified Colonia)

Congress has appropriated $320 million from fiscal year 1993 through fiscal year 1998, when specific funding for Colonias was completed. Colonias are eligible for additional funding through the general border environmental infrastructure program, also funded by EPA.

Federal grants, matched by state resources, help finance construction of water and wastewater facilities in Colonias. Community general technical assistance, preparation of project proposals, overall management of infrastructure projects, technical review of project designs, and project construction management are provided by the Texas Water Development Board and the New Mexico Environment Department, which are responsible for the day-to-day program management. The FY 1999 accomplishment include the following:

• Seventy-eight (78) Colonia projects were underway in Texas, with 24 in the planning phase and 17 under design or construction. About 89,350 Colonia residents are or will benefit from these projects in 672 Colonias;



• In New Mexico, 13 Colonia projects which include 8 in the planning or design phase, and 5 which construction has been completed. These projects will serve a population of 13,800 ; and

• EPA assisted the Texas Attorney General's efforts to promote legislation to close the loopholes that allowed Colonias to develop. The state legislature has adopted such laws and the Attorney General has taken legal action against developers who sold Colonia lots without basic water and service services.

The Small Communities Team manages outreach programs that offer various educational and hands-on training opportunities for people living in small communities or for owners or operators of small wastewater systems. Programs focus on a variety of operator training, curricula development, outreach workshops and conferences, and peer matching activities. The fiscal year 1999 program accomplishments are highlighted below.

Authorized under section 104(g)(1) of the Clean Water Act (CWA) in 1982. The Program provides no-cost, over-the-shoulder, on-site technical, financial, and operation and maintenance assistance to operators of small municipality owned wastewater treatment plants. Assistance is offered to plants that discharge less than or equal to 5 million gallons of effluent per day, and are either out of compliance or in danger of being out of compliance with their wastewater discharge {NPDES} permit, or are trying to improve overall plant performance.

(Municipal wastewater treatment plant)

Since the Program's inception in 1982, a network of forty-seven States or State 104(g)(1) training centers have been set up throughout the United States. From that time 6000 municipal WWTPs {a modest count} have been assisted by the Program's technical trainers. Specifically in 1998 and 1999, the Program respectively assisted 999 and 988 facilities, 1805 of those facilities have either achieved or maintained compliance, or improved plant performance. Over the course of the past two years, the Program's success rate has been greater than 90 percent. The FY 1999 accomplishment include the following:

• EPA regional offices allocated more than $1.79 million to 48 states to continue onsite technical assistance for wastewater treatment plant operators across the country;



• A web-site has been developed for the program, which lists all pertinent information regarding training center and EPA regional office contacts, which can be accessed at http://www.epa.gov/owm/mab/smcomm/104g/.



• The Maryland Center for Environmental Training is preparing the National 104(g) Program training center survey and Individual Regional reports. These reports will help to better the Program by identifying strengths and weakness, and how to improve problematic areas;



• A Tribal Wastewater and Technical Assistance Center is being established under section 104(g)(1) of the CWA. The center will aide Tribes with wastewater concerns and help to implement the Office of Water's Indian Strategy, which states by the year 2005, EPA will reduce the number of homes in Indian country with inadequate wastewater sanitation systems by twenty-five percent (25%); and



• Approximately 150 technical assistance providers attended the 16^th Annual National Operator Training Conference, which will be held in Providence, Rhode Island from June 6-9, 1999.

National Environmental Training Center for Small Communities (NETCSC)
NETCSC serves as a national training and education center for environmental trainers to improve the quality of wastewater, drinking water, and solid waste services in communities with fewer than 10,000 people. NETCSC develops new training curricula, redesigns existing curricula, and partnering with other organizations presents training courses around the country to help small communities meet Federal and State environmental requirements. NETCSC supports a toll-free technical information resource center that maintains several electronic databases and a materials repository for environmental trainers. The center publishes a quarterly newsletter, a resource catalog, a directory of State onsite training centers, and maintains a website. Created in 1991, NETCSC operates under an EPA-NETCSC cooperative agreement funded by a Congressional add-on. It is located at West Virginia University in Morgantown, West Virginia. Its toll-free number is 1-800-624-8301. Its website address is www.nesc.wvu.edu/netcsc/netcsc_index.htm. The following are highlights of NETCSC's FY1999 accomplishments:

• Training Development and Delivery. A new drinking water course for local officials began production in FY 99 as well as incorporation of "distance learning" components into several NETCSC courses. NETCSC also sponsored a training "Academy" to promote creation of State training centers for onsite wastewater systems. The event drew 26 leading trainers representing onsite training centers in 20 States and Canada as well as a regional center and the private sector. NETCSC conducted 15 training sessions with 16 co-sponsors, reaching 325 participants in 7 EPA regions and representing 12 States. NETCSC also served as a regional downlink site for 2 satellite video training conferences. Some NETCSC's courses have been approved for continuing education credits in at least 3 States. Over the years NETCSC has developed 32 courses;



• Training Assistance. NETCSC training offerings earned a 95 percent customer satisfaction rating from course participants. NETCSC provided training information or products to 330 environmental professionals and expanded information in its databases on training activities, materials, and organizations. NETCSC displayed materials at a total of 26 national and State conferences and negotiated cooperative ventures with 16 national and State organization to share and distribute training information;



• Promotions and Outreach. NETCSC prepared and sent out 11 hard copy news releases to various news outlets and prepared 3 promotional foldouts and other marketing materials for its curricula presentations and other activities. 16 external publications carried NETCSC-related stories;



• Website. NETCSC's website logged 4,500 hits in FY1999 including log-ons from 30 countries outside the United States. Among them were Japan, Hong Kong, Taiwan, South Africa, Greece, Turkey, Israel, Australia, Poland, Belgium, Austria, Spain, England, Ireland, Argentina, and Uruguay. NETCSC completed 4 updates to the website including 3 links to other organizations' web-sites; and



• Publications. NETCSC published 4 issues of its free quarterly newsletter E-train and distributed each to 6,600 subscribers, up 300 from last year. Also published were a training resource catalog and a national directory of onsite wastewater training centers.

Back to Top

Several EPA outreach initiatives undertaken by team-managed programs brought new information, knowledge, and skills to small under-served communities. Databases, telephone hotlines, publications, and presentations assisted a variety of small community audiences with their wastewater needs. The following describes several outreach highlights for FY 1999.

Small Community Outreach and Education (SCORE)
This information network is part of EPA's information and technical assistance outreach efforts for small communities. EPA's wastewater program created SCORE in 1988 to help small communities build and maintain self-sufficient wastewater facilities that meet CWA requirements. SCORE works with States, Federal agencies, public interest and advocacy groups, and educational institutions to deliver its messages to audiences: namely that self-sufficient wastewater facilities result from appropriate technology, sound financial management and operations, pollution prevention, and public education. States play the key role in outreach delivery to their communities. EPA in past years provided small grants, most under $10,000 to States to conduct small community outreach activities. The SCORE network includes EPA headquarters and regional SCORE coordinators as well as State and advocacy organizations. SCORE serves as a vehicle to spread the messages of the various programs managed by the Small Communities Team as well as many other EPA activities and publications.

In FY 1999, SCORE networked with other small community outreach programs in headquarters, the regions, and advocacy organizations on small community activities and products. These included team programs, the headquarters Office of State and Local Relations, the Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance, the Small Town Advisory Subcommittee of the Local Government Advisory Committee, the International City Managers Association (ICMA) newsletter SCAN, National Association of Towns & Townships (NATaT). The ICMA newsletter has carried several stories on Small Team publications and activities and articles have also appeared in the Water Environment newsletter. The team and regional SCORE coordinators have distributed small community publications and materials to SCORE partners. The headquarters SCORE coordinator has enlisted the services of several regional SCORE coordinators to serve as technical reviewers on courses produced by the National Environmental Training Center for Small Communities.

The National Small Flows Clearinghouse
The National Small Flows Clearinghouse (NSFC) serves as the national collection and distribution center for information on small community wastewater systems and innovative/alternative technologies. NSFC helps small communities find affordable, onsite wastewater treatment services through various means. These include a toll-free technical assistance hotline, an Internet home page with online discussion groups, computer databases, two newsletters, a journal, and technical publications and videos. NSFC helps America's small communities save thousands of dollars in consulting and construction costs while maintaining their quality of life. NSFC is the only national resource of its kind dealing with small community wastewater infrastructure. It has become a model for other agencies seeking to establish technical assistance programs for small communities. NSFC is supported by a Congressional add-on grant. In FY 1999, NSFC distributed over 100,000 products. Some highlights of its services during FY 1999 are listed below:

(Drip irrigation system)

• Web-site: Usage continued to increase, to over 2,500 distinct hits per month;



• Computer Databases: NSFC maintains four databases that contain (1) articles from professional journals, (2) listings of manufacturers and consultants, (3) innovative and alternative facilities, and (4) regulations. In FY 1999, these databases continued to expand to include information geared to community-sized wastewater facilities. Plans were made to make more of the information available online;



• Periodicals: The format for the quarterly newsletter, Small Flows, was revised, and refereed technical articles have been incorporated instead of publishing in a separate journal. Pipeline, for small community governments, continued to be published



• Toll-Free Hotline: Calls to the hotline continued to increase, from 1,300-1,500 per month in FY 1997 to about 2,000 per month in FY 1999.

Back to Top

A listing of informational material published by members of the Small Communities Team follows:

• Fact Sheet: Rural Community Assistance Program (RCAP) Help for Small Community Wastewater Projects, EPA 832-F-99-013, Facts Sheet #2.0, January 1999;



• Federal Funding Sources for Small Community Wastewater Systems, EPA 832-F-97-004, November 1997;



• Clean Water Indian Set-Aside Grant Program Success Stories, October 1999, located at www.epa.gov/owm/mab/indian/;



• Small Community Fact Sheets (published October 1999) on the wastewater treatment needs and financial conditions of communities with less than or equal to 10,000 people, located at www.epa.gov/owm/mab/smcomm/factsheets/facts.htm;
• The 1990 U.S. Decennial Census of Housing and Population EPA 832-F-99-060)



• The 1996 Clean Water Needs Survey (EPA 832-F-99-058)



• The USDA Rural Utilities Service (EPA 832-F-99-059)



• The EPA Clean Water State Revolving Fund (EPA 832-F-99-057)

Copies of these publications may be obtained by contacting the Office of Water Resource Center at 202-260-7786 or the National Center for Environmental Publications and Information (NCEPI) at 513-489-1890 or 800-490-9198, or by accessing the world wide web at http://www.epa.gov/ncepihom. Include the document control number with your request.

Back to Top

The Small Communities Team is made up of staff from the Municipal Support Division of EPA's Office of Wastewater Management. Current team members or advisors and their programs and telephone numbers are as follows:

Charter Manager: Gary Hudiburgh, Chief, Municipal Assistance Branch	202-260-4926
CWA Indian Set-Aside Grant Program Alaska Native Village Sanitation Grant Program U.S. / Mexico Tribal Border Grant Program Grant Program (Sylvia Bell)	202-260-7255
Rural Community Assistance Program, Inc. {1-888-321-7227} Web-site: www.rcap.org (Maria Campbell)	202-260-5815
National Environmental Training Center for Small Communities {1-800-624-8301} Web-site: www.estd.wvu.edu/netcsc/netcsc_index.htm SCORE (Betty Ford)	202-260-8510
National Small Flows Clearinghouse {1-800-624-8301} Web-site: www.nsfc.wvu.edu NSFC On-site Demonstration Program (Steve Hogye)	202-260-5841
U.S. Colonias Wastewater Assistance Program (Alfonso Blanco)	202-260-3695
Wastewater Operator Training Program - 104(g)(1) (Curt Baranowski)	202-260-5806