Water Technical Assistance
All communities deserve access to safe, clean, and reliable water. Yet, too many communities across America—rural, urban, and suburban, small and large—face challenges in providing safe drinking water, wastewater, and stormwater services to their residents. EPA's free water technical assistance (TA) supports communities to identify water challenges, develop plans, build technical, financial, and managerial capacity, and develop application materials to access water infrastructure funding. EPA collaborates with states, tribes, territories, community partners, and other key stakeholders to implement water TA efforts. The end result: more communities with applications for federal funding, quality water infrastructure, and reliable water services.
EPA has a history of providing water TA to support communities to build their capacity and address compliance challenges—and is now expanding its TA efforts to help more communities. The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law presents an unprecedented opportunity to address water infrastructure needs by providing $50 billion in new funding, the largest federal investment in water in the history of our nation. New and existing EPA water TA programs will be utilized to support effective implementation of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.
Communities may request (subject to availability) free EPA water TA by filling out a simple interest form:
Request Water Technical Assistance here.
Questions may be directed to WaterTA@epa.gov. To receive ongoing updates, please sign up for the EPA’s Water Infrastructure and Resiliency Finance Center email list.
Basic Information
What types of water technical assistance (TA) are available?
EPA water TA provides a variety of services in order to address water and wastewater challenges. These services include:
- Identifying water infrastructure or water quality improvement needs,
- Planning for capital improvements,
- Building technical, managerial, and financial capacity, and
- Preparing for and developing applications materials for financing a project through the State Revolving Funds (SRF) and other EPA-supported funding opportunities.
Challenges that TA can help your community address include:
- Lead service line identification and replacement,
- Drinking water treatment plant and pipe upgrades or building new drinking water infrastructure,
- Wastewater treatment plant and pipe upgrades or building new wastewater infrastructure,
- Connecting households or small drinking water/wastewater systems to larger systems,
- Stormwater, green infrastructure, and water conservation projects,
- Source water protection,
- Emerging contaminant (e.g., PFAS) challenges,
- Improving cybersecurity, and
- Improving climate resiliency.
If your community is facing any of these challenges and could benefit from the support of water technical assistance, request water TA today.
The graphic below lists services EPA's various water TA providers can provide to communities. If you require a different service, learn about additional TA programs here or contact WaterTA@epa.gov.
| Planning and Assessment | Project Development | Partnerships and Engagement | Funding and Financing | Program Management Support |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Community Engagement | Preliminary Engineering Reports | Ongoing Engagement and Outreach | Rates and Revenue Analysis | Bid Support |
| Plan Development and Coordination | Lead Service Line Inventories | Decision-maker and Board Education | Financial Planning | Change Order Review |
| Studies and Assessments | Project Design | Water Systems Partnerships | Identify Funding Options | Project Inspection |
| Asset Management | Environmental Reviews | Capacity Building | Application Support | Domestic Preference and Davis Bacon Assistance |
EPA also partners with interested state agencies to support and strengthen state-run technical assistance programs and state-run SRF programs. Collaboration with states, tribes and territories on expanding the availability of technical assistance to communities is a priority for EPA.
In addition to EPA water TA, EPA is rolling out more general technical assistance under its Thriving Communities initiatives to build foundational capacities within community-based nonprofits and their partners, such as local and tribal governments, to address a range of environmental and public health issues. Services will include training and assistance on writing grant proposals, navigating federal systems such as Grants.gov and SAM.gov, effectively managing grant funds, community engagement, meeting facilitation, and translation and interpretation services for limited English proficiency (LEP) participants. For more information, please visit EPA's Office of Environmental Justice and External Civil Rights. EPA is also coordinating technical assistance with other federal agencies through the Federal Interagency Thriving Communities Network.
Who can receive water TA services?
- Local governments/communities
- Drinking water utilities/systems
- Wastewater utilities/systems
- Stormwater utilities/systems
- States, tribes, territories
- Non-governmental organizations (in pursuit of Clean Water SRF financing)
Contact WaterTA@epa.gov if you have questions regarding your organization's eligibility for TA opportunities or request water technical assistance today.
Who can apply for EPA funding to be a water TA provider?
Eligible applicants are generally non-profit organizations and public and private non-profit universities and colleges. However, funding eligibility for water TA providers varies depending on the program.
To receive ongoing updates, please sign up for EPA's Water Infrastructure and Resiliency Finance Center email list.
Learn About:
- Lead Service Line Replacement Accelerators
- Closing America’s Wastewater Access Gap Pilot: EPA and USDA-RD Community Technical Assistance Partnership
- Environmental Justice Grants, Funding, and Technical Assistance
- Water Technical Assistance Programs
- Bipartisan Infrastructure Law
- Clean Water State Revolving Fund
- Drinking Water State Revolving Fund
- Water Finance Clearinghouse
- Water Finance Webinars and Forums