United States
Environmental Protection
Agency
Office of Water
(4204)
EPA832-F-97-003
October 1997
vvEPA Fact Sheet
What is RCAP?
Rural Community Assistance Program
(RCAP) Help for Small Community
Wastewater Projects _____
RCAP is a National network of nonprofit organizations that provide technical assistance to
communities to help them attain adequate wastewater treatment services. Technical assistance
is carried out through RCAP's six regional organizations and their service areas at no cost to
the participating communities or systems/ A significant amount of RCAP's work is done in
small, rural areas in minority communities, underserved rural areas, or rural areas with a high
percentage of low-income individuals who display a commitment to addressing their waste-
water problems. RCAP's focus is to help communities meet Clean Water Act (CWA) require-
ments and to empower them to operate and maintain the systems they develop. RCAP re-
ceives a grant from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to support small community
wastewater system improvements.
EPA's Small
Community
Wastewater Project
Many communities and tribes experience difficulties in attaining the wastewater treatment
levels to comply with CWA requirements. They often lack adequate financing, management
skills and training to construct, operate, manage and maintain wastewater treatment facilities
or systems. Institutional capacity to implement facility improvements is often non-existent. In a
partnership agreement with EPA, RCAP provides the appropriate financing, management,
operations and maintenance, and other technical assistance through the Small Community
Wastewater Project.
The Project provides on-site technical assistance and information transfer to address
community-specific wastewater treatment or compliance problems in small, rural communi-
ties. RCAP targets:
• unsewered communities under administrative order
• small systems with operations and maintenance problems
• small, rural communities with individual permits and flows <1 MGD that violate discharge
permits
• small, rural communities that need to upgrade wastewater collection, treatment, and/or
distribution facilities
• small, rural communities with other management, financing, construction, operations and
technical needs, such as a history of non-compliance and watershed pollution threats
• communities eligible for EPA's new Hardship Grants.
RCAP's technical assistance activities are coordinated and selected with state and local
governments or tribal pollution control agencies, EPA's regional Small Community Outreach
and Education (SCORE) coordinators and other organizations. The Small Community
Wastewater Project is administered in EPA's Office of Wastewater Management, Municipal
Support Division. The Project is a component of the Small Underserved Communities team in
MSD's Municipal Assistance Branch. The team's goal is to administer programs through which
small underserved communities can access information, financial resources and technical
assistance to achieve adequate and cost effective wastewater systems. Nine additional
technical assistance programs are managed by members of this team.
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Funding for Small For FY 199S, EPA is targeting $521,000 to the Small Community Wastewater Project.
Communities
Additionally, RCAP is contributing $27,420 to the Project from in-kind contributions. RCAP's
technical assistance efforts are being provided to 62 projects in 27 states, including nine states
Without previous technical assistance for wastewater projects: Colorado, Delaware, Georgia,
Illinois, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, South Carolina, and South Dakota. RCAP's technical assistance
projects are obtained in response to requests from state or tribal pollution control agencies,
rural wastewater treatment facility owners and operators, and rural community residents.
In FY 1997 the Project was funded by EPA's congressional add-on grant of $307,000 and
$16,158 of in-kind contributions. During 1997, RCAP's project activities provided community-
specific on-site technical assistance to 42 projects in 19 states. The Midwestern and
Southeastern Regional RCAPs provided assistance to small communities without community-
wide wastewater treatment facilities, with failing on-site systems, or with uncertain
wastewater treatment and collection options. The Southern and Great Lakes Regional RCAPs
targeted assistance to communities with systems that had flows less than 1 MGD and violated
their discharge permits. Assistance to communities with pollution prevention issues continued
in the Northeastern RCAP. On-site technical assistance to the Navajo Nation was a special
target in the Western Regional RCAP, and assistance is provided to tribal systems.
During the 1996 project year, RCAP provided technical assistance to 49 community projects
in 17 states: Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Louisiana, Minnesota, Maryland, Missouri, New
Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Texas, Virginia,
Washington, and Wisconsin. RCAP managed 22 facility development projects, 10 management
and finance projects, 13 operations and maintenance projects, and four projects for program
planning and other types of technical assistance. A population of 38,000 benefitted from these
types of technical assistance.
For More
Information
Contact:
Municipal Assistance Branch
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Maria E. Campbell
401 M. Street, SW (Mail Code 4202)
Washington, D.C. 20460
(202) 260-5815
Internet: http://www.epa.gov
or
National RCAP
602 South King Street, Suite 402
Leesburg, Virginia 22075
(703) 771-8636
Internet: http://www.rcap.org
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