United States Office of Water EPA 832-F-00-009

Environmental Protection (4204 M) November 2001

Agency Fact Sheet #4.0

Fact Sheet

Rural Community Assistance Program 

(RCAP) Help for Small Community 

Wastewater Projects

EPA’s Small

Community

Wastewater

Project

What is RCAP?

This project is a training and technical assistance program focused on addressing wastewater treatment

and disposal issues in small, rural and tribal communities which have difficulties complying with Clean

Water Act (CWA) requirements. These communities 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 or to address watershed pollution threats is

often nonexistent. In a partnership agreement with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the

Rural Community Assistance Program, Inc. (RCAP), provides the appropriate financial management,

operations and maintenance, and other community-specific technical assistance through the Small

Community Wastewater Project. RCAP receives a grant from the EPA to support small community

wastewater system needs.

RCAP’s technical assistance activities are coordinated and selected with state and local governments or

tribal pollution control agencies, EPA’s outreach coordinators and other appropriate organizations to

address small community wastewater treatment problems. RCAP’s activities will be targeted to:

• include or increase efforts in training and technical assistance for minority and/or tribal communities;

• assist in the maintenance and/or development of decentralized wastewater treatment systems;

• link the wastewater treatment needs of small, disadvantaged rural communities with fewer than 3,000

people to the EPA’s State Revolving Loan Fund (SRF) program;

• unsewered communities under administrative orders; 

• small systems with operations and maintenance problems;

• small, rural communities with individual permits and flows less than one million gallons per day

(<1MGD) that are in violation of their discharge permits, or are in danger of noncompliance of

discharge permit requirements;

• small, rural communities that need to upgrade their wastewater collection, treatment, and/or disposal

facilities to meet CWA requirements; and

• small, rural communities with other management, financing, construction, operations, and technical

needs, including difficulties accessing public financing, a history of noncompliance, the absence of

institutional capacity to implement facility improvements, (whether central or non-central solutions),

an insufficient financial base to construct, operate, manage and maintain facilities, and, watershed

pollution threats.

The Project is a component of the Small Communities Team in the Municipal Support Division’s

Municipal Assistance Branch. The team’s goal is to administer programs through which small

communities can access information, financial resources, and technical assistance to achieve adequate

and cost-effective wastewater systems. Visit EPA’s webpage at “www.epa.gov/owm/smallc.htm” to

obtain information for the team’s other small community programs.

RCAP is a national network of nonprofit organizations that provides on-site technical assistance to rural

communities to help them attain and/or maintain adequate wastewater treatment services. RCAP is also a

resource for community leaders seeking technical assistance services for other community-specific

needs. Technical assistance is carried out through RCAP’s experienced community development and

leadership specialists at six regional organizations and their service areas. Assistance is provided at no

cost to the participating communities. Most of RCAP’s work is done in small, rural areas with

populations of 3,000 or less and with a high percentage of low-income individuals who display a

commitment to addressing their wastewater problems.
Funding for the

Small Community

Wastewater

Project

For the FY 2002 project year, EPA is targeting $1,128,300, to the Small Community Wastewater Project. 

Additionally, RCAP is providing $56,000 of in-kind contributions for the Project. RCAP will continue to

provide technical assistance efforts initiated through previous years’ Congressional add-ons to address

small community wastewater treatment and disposal needs. RCAP will provide on-site assistance for

approximately 115 projects in 33 states and Puerto Rico. Projects are selected in response to requests

from state or tribal pollution control agencies, rural wastewater treatment facility owners and operators,

and rural community residents. Additionally, RCAP will provide 17 training sessions or workshops for

system owners and operators. Topics will include affordable wastewater treatment technology, system

operation and management issues, operator training, requirements of the CWA and the management of

decentralized wastewater systems.

In FY 2001, funding for the Project totaled $1,045,516, including an EPA grant of $995,716 and $49,800 of

RCAP’s in-kind contributions. RCAP provided technical assistance efforts in 131 small, rural

communities in 27 states and Puerto Rico: Alaska, Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Kansas,

Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Missouri, New Mexico, New York, North

Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Virginia,

Washington, West Virginia, and Wisconsin. Also, RCAP conducted a total of 13 training sessions for

owners and operators of small wastewater treatment systems. 

During FY 2000, RCAP provided on-site technical assistance to 78 small, rural communities in 22 states. 

RCAP managed 48 facilities development projects, 11management and finance projects, 11 operations and

maintenance projects, 6 planning and development projects, one capacity building project, and one

source protection project. Six training workshops were conducted in five project states. A total of 70,152

people directly benefitted from RCAP’s assistance during the project year. 

For More Information Contact:

Municipal Assistance Branch

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

Maria E. Campbell

1200 Pennsylvania Ave., NW

Ariel Rios Building (Mail Code 4204-M)

Washington, D.C. 20460

(202) 564-0628

e-mail: campbell.maria@epa.gov

Rural Community Assistance Program, Inc. (RCAP)

1522 K. Street, NW, Suite 400

Washington, D.C. 20005 

1-888-321-7227

Internet: http://www.rcap.org

e-mail: rcap@rcap.org