All communities deserve access to safe, clean, and reliable water. The EPA’s priority is to support training and technical assistance to communities of need and improve public health through enhancement of technical, managerial, and financial capacity, compliance, and drinking water infrastructure. The training and technical assistance will help ensure that communities that have historically struggled to access public funding receive the support they need. The EPA aims to maximize the potential for these funds to significantly benefit rural, small, or Tribal communities with training and technical assistance in their respective public waters systems. Applicants are encouraged to prioritize training and technical assistance that support environmental justice. Environmental justice is the fair treatment and meaningful involvement of all people regardless of race, color, national origin, or income, with respect to the development, implementation, and enforcement of environmental laws, regulations, and policies. This goal will be achieved when everyone enjoys:

• The same degree of protection from environmental and health hazards, and
• Equal access to the decision-making process to have a healthy environment in which to live, learn, and work.

Awards made through this notice are intended also to enable communities to comply with environmental regulations and build their technical, managerial, and financial capacity to sustainably operate drinking water infrastructure. Providing assistance in technical, managerial, and financial capacity building will allow communities to better protect both public health and the environment and support the Justice40 Initiative. With respect to this notice, the benefits as described under the Justice40 Initiative include training and technical assistance that support or aid improvements to communities and private well owners experiencing limited water and sanitation access and affordability and development of critical clean water and waste infrastructure.

National Priority Areas

Each application submitted under this announcement must address only one of the three National Priority Areas described below. Applicants may submit more than one application package under this announcement as long as each one is submitted separately and addresses only one National Priority Area.

• National Priority Area 1: Training and Technical Assistance for Small Public Water Systems to Achieve and Maintain Compliance with the SDWA, including Improving Financial and Managerial Capacity
• National Priority Area 2: Training and Technical Assistance for Small Publicly Owned Wastewater Systems and Onsite/Decentralized Wastewater Systems to Help Improve Water Quality and Sustainable Operations
• National Priority Area 3: Training and Technical Assistance for Private Drinking Water Well Owners to Help Improve Water Quality

EPA reserves the right to make additional awards under this announcement, consistent with agency policy and guidance, if additional funding becomes available. Any additional selections for awards will be made no later than six months after the original selection decisions.

Eligible Applicants

Eligible applicants under this competition are nonprofit organizations, nonprofit private universities and colleges, and public institutions of higher education. For-profit organizations are not eligible to apply. States, municipalities, Tribal governments, and individuals are not eligible to apply.