EPA 1996 Clean Water Needs Survey - Overview: Small Community Wastewater Needs

To assess the wastewater treatment needs of communities across the United States, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regularly conducts the Clean Water Needs Survey (CWNS). The CWNS determines community wastewater needs by estimating the treatment required by a community to meet a projected 20-year population growth. The CWNS summarizes cost information (e.g., needs) for communities of all sizes, but only for projects eligible for State Revolving Funds (SRF). Congress uses this information to allocate SRF funds to the states.  

The CWNS defines a "need" as a cost estimate for a project eligible for funding under the SRF program in accordance with Title VI of the Clean Water Act (CWA). The estimates include costs associated with protection of public health or abatement of water quality problems. Listed below are types of costs included in the CWNS, and those costs not included because they are ineligible for federal assistance under the SRF program: 

The Needs Survey includes costs for:  Municipal wastewater - conveyance   - storage - treatment   - recycling   - reclamation Stormwater and nonpoint source programs

The Needs Survey does not include cost estimates for:  Operation and management Connections between homes and sewers  Land acquisition for treatment plant construction or expansion   Native American Tribes Alaska Native Villages   Private wastewater facilities

Small Community Needs  

This fact sheet focuses on a subset of the communities described in EPA's 1996 CWNS Report to Congress. The fact sheet highlights wastewater treatment needs of communities of 10,000 or fewer people (e.g., small communities), because their needs are often overshadowed by those of larger communities. 

The 1996 CWNS determined that the total documented wastewater need for small communities through the year 2016 is $13.8 billion. This represents 11 percent of the total $139.5 billion documented need for all communities within the Nation. The Survey asked state officials to prioritize facilities based on needs that "address the most serious risks to human health, and are necessary to ensure compliance with requirements of the CWA." Small communities, however, often lack the resources to develop the detailed planning and engineering studies it takes to prioritize needs. Many of these communities could not appropriately document their existing needs and, therefore, they were not accurately reported. 

Additionally, EPA quantifies some, but not all, needs in its CWNS as mentioned before. For example, cost estimates for indoor plumbing of homes or for connecting them to sewers are not included, since they are not eligible for SRF funding. The 1990 U.S. Census data indicate that in small communities, 758,298 housing units still lack complete plumbing and, therefore, do not have access to sewage disposal systems. Consequently, the wastewater treatment needs of smaller populations are greater than those reported in the 1996 CWNS.

Table 1 displays (1) the five states with the largest documented needs for small communities, and (2) their needs as a percentage of total state need. The need within these five states accounts for 38 percent of the total $13.8 billion small community need in the country. Tables 2 and 3 provide a state-by-state listing of wastewater and facility needs.

Data was compiled from the 1996 Needs Survey Report to Congress.

Treatment Facilities in Small Communities  

Nearly 21,000 wastewater treatment facilities will be needed to serve small communities by the year 2016. This represents 71 percent of all facilities needed for all community sizes throughout the United States (Figure 1). In six states (Alaska, Iowa, North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, and West Virginia), more than 90 percent of all needed wastewater treatment facilities will serve communities of 10,000 or fewer people.  

Type of Wastewater Treatment Infrastructure Needed in Small Communities 

The type of treatment technologies needed by small communities is shown in Figure 2. The top three needs are:  

New collector sewers: 28.6 percent  
Secondary treatment: 28.3 percent  
Combined sewer overflows (CSOs): 15.4 percent

Total Small Community Needs = $13.8 Billion

Small communities have a greater need than larger communities for basic sewage treatment infrastructure (i.e., the need to extend wastewater collection and treatment to less populated areas). For example, new collector sewers account for 28.6 percent of the total documented needs in small communities but represent only 6.0 percent of the total need in large communities.

Region 5 (which includes IL, IN, MI, MN, OH and WI) has the greatest small community need among the 10 EPA Regions (Figure 3). Region 5 needs nearly $3.8 billion to meet the goals of the Clean Water Act. The states in Region 5 have provided $450 million in SRF funding to these communities from 1996 through 1998. This represents approximately 1 percent of the amount required to meet the projected needs in Region 5 by 2016.

Small Community Needs Data Tables:

Table Name	On-line View	Text Download*	Excel Spreadsheet Download
Table 1. Clean Water Needs Survey Data (1996): State-by-State Listing of Total Small Community (Population <10,000) Documented Needs (January 1996 Dollars in Millions) for Publicly Owned Wastewater Treatment Facilities and Other State Revolving Fund Eligibilities for the Year 2016.
Table 2. Clean Water Needs Survey Data (1996): Regional and State Listing of Total Small Community (Population <10,000) Documented Needs (January 1996 Dollars in Millions) for Publicly Owned Wastewater Treatment Facilities and Other State Revolving Fund Eligibilities for the Year 2016.
Table 3. Clean Water Needs Survey Data (1996): National Summary by EPA Region of Total Small Community (Population <10,000) Documented Needs (January 1996 Dollars in Millions) for Publicly Owned Wastewater Treatment Facilities and Other State Revolving Fund Eligibilities for the Year 2016.
Table 4. Clean Water Needs Survey Data (1996): State Listing of Estimated Number of Total Facilities Needed within a State to Serve Small Communities by 2016.