02J28401

DESCRIPTION:
This agreement provides funding under the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) to support the Environmental Finance Center (EFC) at the Rural Community Assistance Corporation (RCAC). The EFCs provide finance-related training, education, and analytical studies to help regulated parties develop solutions to the difficult 'how-to-pay' issues associated with meeting environmental standards. The EFCs educate state, tribal, and local governments and businesses on lowering environmental costs, increasing environmental investments, improving financial capacity, identifying appropriate revenue-generating mechanisms, and evaluating environmental financing options. Through this project, the EFC enables water and wastewater systems to access funding for infrastructure improvement projects from the IIJA.

ACTIVITIES:
The activities include direct on- and off-site technical assistance (TA). Individual TA workplans will be developed for each utility assisted, and EFC staff will work directly with communities to address the needs outlined in the workplans. TA will often include community-specific capacity-building one-on-one trainings. TA will be marketed and supported through the creation and dissemination of finance-related tools and resources, research, EFC staff participation at educational events, and two annual multi-community educational webinars in each state (AK, ID, OR, and WA).

SUBRECIPIENT:
The activities through the subawards include the Willamette Partnership, which will provide a wide range of solutions to infrastructure planning, design, and implementation that will address the immediate infrastructure need while finding opportunities to achieve benefits for the environment, community health, and the local economy. The University of Oregon's Institute for Policy Research and Engagement subaward will contribute to the R10 EFC by linking the skills, expertise, and innovation of higher education with local planning, economic development, and environmental issues. The Moonshot Missions subaward will assist the EFC to identify community needs and build local technical, managerial, and financial capacity to meet those needs.

OUTCOMES:
The anticipated deliverables to EPA include quarterly reports, community TA workplans, stakeholder task force meetings, participation in related events and webinars. The deliverables to the communities receiving TA include funding applications, asset management documents, rate studies, procurement plans, income surveys, capital improvement plans, O&M plans, financial statements, and affordability studies.

The expected outcome is facilitating access to IIJA State Revolving Fund (SRF) resources (and other relevant IIJA funding opportunities such as the Emerging Contaminants in Small or Disadvantaged Communities Grant Program) for water and wastewater systems, with a focus on underserved and disadvantaged communities that have never accessed SRF funding before, and communities that are not currently receiving TA.

The intended beneficiaries are, initially, communities that are defined as disadvantaged by state intended use plans but may also target outreach and assistance based on other definitions and metrics of disadvantaged and underserved status as they become available.

Rural Community Assistance Corporation

1 - TACKLE THE CLIMATE CRISIS 1.1 - REDUCE EMISSIONS THAT CAUSE CLIMATE CHANGE 2 - MORE EFFECTIVE PARTNERSHIPS 2.2 - INCREASE TRANSPARENCY AND PUBLIC PARTICIPATION 6 - SAFEGUARD AND REVITALIZE COMMUNITIES 6.2 - REDUCE WASTE AND PREVENT ENVIRONMENTAL CONTAMINATION 5 - ENSURE CLEAN AND SAFE WATER FOR ALL COMMUNITIES 5.1 - ENSURE SAFE DRINKING WATER AND RELIABLE WATER INFRASTRUCTURE

66.203 - Environmental Finance Center Grants

EPA Region 10: Seattle [EPA - RO]

Washington United States

State-Wide

ENVIRONMENTAL FINANCE CENTER GRANT PROGRAM (EPA-I-OW-OWM-22-01)

Infrastructure $1,992,160 (43%) percent this Cooperative Agreement was funded by the 2021 Infrastructure Act.
Amendment Since initial award the total obligations have increased 134% from $1,992,160 to $4,669,646.