NRWA Praises Senate Bill To Provide On-Site Technical Assistance To Small And Rural Communities To Help With Federal Clean Water Requirements

The National Rural Water Association (NRWA), the largest community-based clean water organization in the country, is grateful to U.S. Senator Wicker (MS) and the eleven co-sponsoring Senators for introducing “The Small and Rural Community Clean Water Technical Assistance Act” (S. 518) yesterday.

The legislation would establish a Clean Water Act (CWA) technical assistance and training program to assist small public wastewater treatment systems, those serving not more than 10,000 people, in complying with CWA. The bill would authorize $15 million a year over five years for technical assistance including “circuit rider” type approaches to deal with the operation and maintenance of small wastewater utilities and compliance for clean water permits. The vast majority of communities regulated by the EPA under the Clean Water Act are small; 80% of the country’s 16,255 wastewater supplies serve fewer than 10,000 persons.

Eric Volk, Executive Director of the North Dakota Rural Water Systems Association said, “All small and rural communities are grateful to Senators Heitkamp and Wicker for their assistance and sponsorship of the Small and Rural Community Clean Water Assistance Act. Small and rural communities have the very important public responsibility of complying with all applicable federal regulations and for supplying the public with safe drinking water and sanitation every second of every day. Senator Heitkamp and Wicker's legislation ensures that small and rural communities have access to the essential technical assistance needed to stay in compliance with all federal water regulations, avoid fines, and effectively operate their water treatment works to protect the environment. Most small community non-compliance with the Clean Water Act can be quickly remedied by on-site technical assistance and education. Thanks to the Senators’ help, small and rural communities will be provided on-site technical assistance to show them how to comply and protect their local waters in the most cost effective manner. The technical assistance will be provided by ‘Circuit Riders’ who are experienced wastewater treatment works technicians who continually travel throughout the state to be available to any community needing help. Small and rural communities often have difficulty complying with complicated federal mandates and providing safe-affordable drinking water and sanitation due to limited economies of scale and lack of technical expertise."

NRWA urges expedited enactment of this legislation to allow the assistance to be available as soon as possible.

The twelve original sponsors include: Senators Roger Wicker [MS], Heidi Heitkamp [ND], John Boozman [AR], John Barrasso [WY], Mike Crapo [ID], Al Franken [MN], Mazie Hirono [HI], Amy Klobuchar [MN], Joe Manchin [WV], Jim Risch [ID], Brian Schatz [HI], and Jon Tester [MT].

The text of the legislation is available at this link(https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B4WSfEVpx5MSNXdTZ3lhT2NPYlE5Z0o4RlhPTTZMUXY0cXE4/view).