Wastewater Technical Assistance to Small Communities

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) Water Technical Assistance (WaterTA) program was established to connect communities nationwide to experts who can help assess and implement solutions for their drinking water, sewage, and stormwater needs. Targeted to local governments, utilities, and Tribes facing water-related challenges, the program provides technical assistance to help these communities identify water challenges and solutions, build capacity, and develop application materials to access water infrastructure funding. EPA contracted with ERG to provide comprehensive wastewater engineering and technical support to communities under the WaterTA program.

In response to requests from communities nationwide, ERG technical experts across multiple disciplines provide hands-on support tailored to each community’s situation. For example, ERG helps communities identify wastewater infrastructure or quality challenges; develop plans to address these challenges; build technical, managerial, and financial capacity; maintain regulatory compliance; prepare application materials to finance wastewater infrastructure projects with public funding; and improve resilience. For each project, we engage with key community staff to gather the information needed to provide support. We assess existing conditions by evaluating existing infrastructure, environmental concerns, community demographics, and financial information, and then develop an alternatives analysis. We prepare funding options for the community to pursue, support communities in preparing funding applications, and perform a high-level rate analysis of the capital and operating costs for any improvements. We also support communities in developing ordinances and assist with other activities that would impact the proposed alternatives. ERG has supported many Preliminary Engineering Reviews, Solutions Plans, and other related efforts. As each community project proceeds, we provide targeted outreach to engage communities and raise local awareness about the project, gather community input, and work to achieve community buy-in on the engineering analyses and recommended project alternatives.