United States
Environmental Protection
Agency
Office of Water
(4204)
Washingtpn, DC 20460
ERA 832-F-99-058
October 1999
EPA 1996 Clean Water Needs
Survey: Small Community
Wastewater Needs
Clean Water Needs Survey
Overview
To assess the wastewater treatment needs of com-
munities across the United States, the
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regularly
conducts the Clean Water Needs Survey (CWNS).
The CWNS determines community wastewater
needs by estimating the treatment required by a
community to meet a projected 20-year population
growth. The CWNS summarizes cost information
(e.g., needs) for communities of all sizes, but only
for projects eligible for State Revolving Funds
(SRF). Congress uses this information to allocate
SRF funds to the states.
The CWNS defines a "need" as a cost estimate for
a project eligible for funding under the SRF pro-
gram in accordance with Title VI of the Clean
Water Act (CWA). The estimates include costs
associated with protection of public health or
Did you know ... ?
H Small communities will need $13.8 billion
by the year 2016 to meet Clean Water Act
requirements.
• Small communities will need close to 21,000
wastewater treatment facilities by the year
2016.
H Sixty percent of the Nation's total small
community need is represented by only 10
States (IL, IN, OH, PA, NC, NY, TX, VA,
WI, and WV).
abatement of water quality problems. Listed
below are types of costs included in the CWNS,
and those costs not included because they are inel-
igible for federal assistance under the SRF pro-
gram:
The Needs Survey includes costs for:
• Municipal wastewater
• conveyance
• storage
• treatment
• recycling
• reclamation
• Stormwater and nonpoint source programs
The Needs Survey does not include cost estimates
for:
• Operation and management
• Connections between homes and sewers
B Land acquisition for treatment plant construction
or expansion
• Native American Tribes
• Alaska Native Villages
• Private wastewater facilities
Small Community Needs
This fact sheet focuses on a subset of the commu-
nities described in EPA's 1996 CWNS Report to
Congress. The fact sheet highlights wastewater
treatment needs of communities of 10,000 or
fewer people (e.g., small communities), because
their needs are often overshadowed by those of
larger communities.
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The 1996 CWNS determined that the total docu-
mented wastewater need for small communities
through the year 2016 is $13.8 billion. This repre-
sents 11 percent of the total $139.5 billion docu-
mented need for all communities within the
Nation. The Survey asked state officials to priori-
tize facilities based on needs that "address the
most serious risks to human health, and are neces-
sary to ensure compliance with requirements of
the CWA." Small communities, however, often
lack the resources to develop the detailed planning
and engineering studies it takes to prioritize needs.
Many of these communities could not appropriate-
ly document their existing needs and, therefore,
they were not accurately reported.
Additionally, EPA quantifies some, but not all,
needs in its CWNS as mentioned before. For
example, cost estimates for indoor plumbing of
homes or for connecting them to sewers are not
included, since they are not eligible for SRF fund-
ing. The 1990 U.S. Census data indicate that in
small communities, 758,298 housing units still
lack complete plumbing and, therefore, do not
have access to sewage disposal systems.
Consequently, the wastewater treatment needs of
smaller populations are greater than those report-
ed in the 1996 CWNS.
Table 1 displays (1) the five states with the largest
documented needs for small communities, and (2)
Table 1. States with Greatest Small
Community Financial Need and the
Percentage of Total State Need
State
Ohio
Pennsylvania
West Virginia
North Carolina
New York
* 1996 Dollars
Amount
(Millions*)
$1,499
$1,430
$950
$781
$699
Percent of
Total
State Need
21
24
58
20
4
Figure 1. Comparison of Small Community Needs in
Dollars and Number of Facilities with Total Needs
Billions of Dollars Number of Facilities
their needs as a percentage of total state need. The
need within these five states accounts for 38 per-
cent of the total $13.8 billion small community
need in the country. Tables 2 and 3 provide a
state-by-state listing of wastewater and facility
needs. Data was compiled from the 1996 Needs
Survey Report to Congress.
Treatment Facilities in Small
Communities
Nearly 21,000 wastewater treatment facilities will
be needed to serve small communities by the year
2016. This represents 71 percent of all facilities
needed for all community sizes throughout the
United States (Figure 1). In six states (Alaska,
Iowa, North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, and
West Virginia), more than 90 percent of all needed
wastewater treatment facilities will serve commu-
nities of 10,000 or fewer people.
Type of Wastewater Treatment
Infrastructure Needed in Small
Communities
The type of treatment technologies needed by
small communities is shown in Figure 2. The top
three needs are:
• New collector sewers: 28.6 percent
• Secondary treatment: 28.3 percent
• Combined sewer overflows (CSOs): 15.4 percent
-------
Figure 2. Category of Need by Percentage Within Small Communities
0.5% Nonpoint Sources
New Collector Sewers 28.6 %
Sewer Replacement 2.5%
Infiltration Correction 4.9%
Advanced Treatment 5.9%
Storm Water 0.1%
13.8% New Interceptor Sewers
15.4% CSOs
28.3% Secondary Treatment
Total Small Community Needs = $13.8 Billion
Small communities have a greater need than
larger communities for basic sewage treatment
infrastructure (i.e., the need to extend wastewater
collection and treatment to less populated areas).
For example, new collector sewers account for
28.6 percent of the total documented needs in
small communities but represent only 6.0 percent
of the total need in large communities.
Region 5 (which includes IL, IN, MI, MN, OH
and WI) hafe the greatest small community need
among the 10 EPA Regions (Figure 3). Region 5
needs nearly $3.8 billion to meet the goals
of the Clean Water Act. The states in Region 5
have provided $450 million in SRF funding
to these communities from 1996 through 1998.
This represents approximately 1 percent of the
amount required to meet the projected needs in
Region 5 by 2016.
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Figure 3. Total Estimated Small Community Needs by EPA Region and Proportion
of That Need Met by SRF Disbursements From 1996-1998.
Total Need
SRF 1996-98
5 6
EPA Region
10
Additional copies of this fact sheet may be obtained by contacting the Office of Water Resources Center in EPA at (202) 260-7786 and
referring to the document number EPA 832-F-99-058. You may also visit our Website (http://www.epa.gov/OWM/smallc.htm) to obtain
oilier summaries of this information.
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Table 2. Clean Water Needs Survey Data (1906): State-by-State Listing of Total Small Community
(Population <10,000) Documented Needs (January 1996 Dollars in Millions) for Publicly Owned
Wastewater Treatment Facilities and Other State Revolving Fund Eligibilities for the Year 2016.*
Statt
Alabama
Alaska
Amer. Samoa
Arizona
Arkansas
California
Colorado
Connecticut
Delaware
Florida
Georgia
Guam
Hawaii
Idaho
Illinois
Indiana
Iowa
Kansas
Kentucky
Louisiana
Maine
Maryland
Massachusetts
Michigan
Minnesota
Mississippi
Missouri
Montana
Nebraska
Nevada
New Hampshire
New Jersey
New Mexico
New York
No. Marianas
North Carolina
North Dakota
Ohio
Oklahoma
Oregon
Pennsylvania
Puerto Rico
Rhode Island
South Carolina
South Dakota
Tennessee
Texas
Utah
Vermont
Virgin Islands
Virginia
Washington
West Virginia
Wisconsin
Wyoming
Total
Total (S)
Smell
Commun-
ity Need
253
257
0
192
145
340
124
79
37
49
84
0
17
74
616
647
71
135
377
245
205
96
169
294
254
309
244
64
41
14
60
492
65
699
3
781
20
1.499.
74
93
1,430
0
12
82
40
107
589
36
115
9
589
121
950
555
8
13,861
Percent of
Total State
Needs
32%
53%
0%
9%
55%
3%
27%
4%
17%
1%
5%
0%
2%
24%
6%
13%
8%
10%
16%
34%
27%
7%
5%
6%
31%
39%
9%
54%
7%
39%
8%
7%
40%
4%
6%
20%
22%
21%
23%
5%
24%
0%
1%
5%
31%
12%
12%
12%
36%
10%
15%
10%
58%
27%
21%
11%
Percent of
Total National
Small
Community
Needs
1.8%
1.9%
0.0%
1.4%
1.0%
2.5%
0.9%
0.6%
0.3%
0.4%
0.6%
0.0%
0.1%
0.5%
4.4%
4.7%
0.5%
1.0%
2.7%
1.8%
1.5%
0.7%
1.2%
2.1%
1.8%
2.2%
1.8%
0.5%
0.3%
0.1%
0.4%
3.5%
0.5%
5.0%
0.0%
5.6%
0.1%
10.8%
0.5%
0.7%
10.3%
0.0%
0.1%
0.6%
0.3%
0.8%
4.2%
0.3%
0.8%
0.1%
4.2%
0.9%
6.9%
4.0%
0.1%
100.0%
Secondary
Treatment (S)
50
247
0
79
63
180
90
15
5
15
28
0
11
38
161
78
15
61
85
77
50
45
54
106
•140
79
61
30
33
5
14
172
16
241
3
59
10
183
27
45
350
0
0"
34
22
19
234
11
14
4
116
53
181
211
6
3,926
Advanced
Treatment
(S)
29
0
0
44
13
6
20
1
0
4
18
0
0
0
10
39
0"
9
14
24
2
5
13
3
8
11
0
4
3
0
3
34
16
21
0
136
0
48
17
16
51
0
0
4
1
5
50
0
21
0
52
1
14
42
0
812
Infiltration/
Inflow
Correction ($)
1
0
0
0"
2
11
2
1
0
6
5
0
0
0**
16
12
0"
21
15
2
6
2
3
2
14
35
5
2
1
2
3
31
1
30
0
32
0
299
5
5
9
0
0
1
0"
16
12
0
4
0"
28
14
19
8
0
683
Sewer
Replace-
ment/
Rehabilita-
tion ($)
5
1
0
12
0"
3
4
0
0"
0
2
0
2
5
62
7
2
4
9
2
5
2
0"
3
12
13
7
9
0
2
1
33
2
19
0
23
8
7
1
6
9
0
0
2
2
12
5
2
0"
5
1
4
17
11
1
344
New
Collector
Sewers (S)
: 116
6
0
46
41
96
0
36
20
19
13
0
4
14
i 143
96
8
: 18
, 132
96
. 33
14
74
127
46
100
102
14
. 2
2
i 26
139
28
184
. 0"
338
0
222
10
14
. 573
. 0
12
21
4
28
166
: 19
' 30
0
246
21
, 250
222
0"
3,971
New
Interceptor
Sewera ($)
52
0
0
11
26
43
8
26
12
5
18
0
0
17
53
50
2
22
78
44
27
16
24
30
14
71
41
5
2
3
13
49
2
89
0"
186
1
120
14
7
118
0
0
20
3
27
122
4
9
0
146
23
193
61
1
1,908
Combined
Sewer
Overflows
($)
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
171
365
44
0
44
0
82
12
0
23
0
0
28
0
0
0
0
14
0
99
0
0
0
620
0
0
320
0
0
0
0"
0
0
0
37
0
0
0
276
0
0
2,135
Storm-
water ($)
0
0
0
0
0
1
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0"
0"
0
0
0
0
0
0
1
0"
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
8
0
0
0
0
0
0
4
0
0
0
14
Nonpolnt
Sources
($)
0
3
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
1
0
20
0"
0
0
0
0
0
20
0
16
0
6
1
0
0
0**
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
1
0
0
0
68
Sum of
Traditional
SRF
Eligibilities
(S)
253
254
0
192
145
339
124
79
37
49
84
0
17
74
616
647
71
135
377
245
205
96
168
294
234
309
244
64
41
14
60
472
65
683
3
774
19
1,499
74
93
1,430
0
12
82
32
107
589
36
115
9
589
116
950
555
8
13,779
* This table summarizes the 1996 EPA assessment of documented design year needs for small communities by State. The assessment
includes needs for traditional eligibilities (Categories A-G), storm water control, and nonpoint sources to satisfy the design year (2016)
population living in small communities. All values are presented in millions of January 1996 dollars. These small community design year
needs have met the established documentation criteria and represent the capital investment necessary to build all publicly owned waste-
water treatment facilities needed to serve the estimated population of small communities in 2016. These are the funds necessary to pro-
vide adequate wastewater treatment systems and storm water control in compliance with the Clean Water Act for those small communities
that could document their needs.
** Estimate is less than $0.5 million
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Table 3. Clean Water Needs Survey Data (1996): State Listing of Estimated Number of Total
Facilities Needed within a State to Serve Small Communities by 2016.
State
Alabama
Alaska
Amer. Samoa
Arizona
Arkansas
California
Colorado
Connecticut
Delaware
Florida
Georgia
Guam
Hawaii
Idaho
Illinois
Indiana
Iowa
Kansas
Kentucky
Louisiana
Maine
Maryland
Massachusetts
Michigan
Minnesota
Mississippi
Missouri
Montana
Nebraska
Nevada
New Hampshire
New Jersey
New Mexico
New York
No. Marianas
North Carolina
North Dakota
Ohio
Oklahoma
Oregon
Pennsylvania
Puerto Rico
Rhode Island
South Carolina
South Dakota
Tennessee
Texas
Utah
Vermont
Virgin Islands
Virginia
Washington
West Virginia
Wisconsin
Wyoming
Total
Total Number of Facilities
503
181
0
533
777
974
420
219
106
480
797
7
34
247
1,287
528
986
690
492
585
216
433
282
788
824
736
1,126
233
527
83
127
690
133
1,375
5
828
384
1,370
541
272
2,165
0
36
361
360
398
2,025
448
126
12
556
392
702
1,206
142
29,748
Facilities Serving Small
Communities
357
165
0
325
676
526
269
92
75
96
582
3
11
210
811
396
897
614
359
439
164
212
96
512
676
640
788
196
480
55
65
359
88
1,004
2
439
372
959
449
182
1 ,624
0
4
184
346
247
1,377
242
96
9
378
247
632
868
88
20,983
Percent of Total Facilities Serving
Small Communities
71%
91%
0%
61%
87%
54%
64%
42%
71%
20%
73%
43%
32%
85%
63%
75%
91%
89%
73%
75%
76%
49%
34%
65%
82%
87%
70%
84%
91%
66%
51%
52%
66%
73%
40%
53%
97%
70%
83%
67%
75%
0%
11%
51%
96%
62%
68%
54%
76%
75%
68%
63 /o
90%
72%
62%
71%
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