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The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is soliciting applications under the authority of the Clean Water Act (CWA) section 104(b)(8) to provide Technical Assistance and Training for Rural, Small and Tribal Municipalities and Wastewater Treatment Systems. The program supports small, rural, and Tribal communities’ efforts to identify water challenges, develop plans, build technical, financial, and managerial capacity, comply with CWA requirements, and access water infrastructure funding.Through this Notice of Funding Opportunity under the Clean Water Act, EPA will achieve greater protection of public health and the environment through an increase in trained water sector personnel, access to funding and financing for wastewater treatment facilities, and Clean Water Act compliance. This action advances the Administration’s priorities, including to Make America Healthy Again, by improving water quality and reducing exposure risks, and enabling responsible economic growth for small, rural, and tribal communities through improved wastewater infrastructure. In partnership with States, Tribes, and local governments and grounded in sound science and the law, EPA will deliver cleaner water, stronger infrastructure, and long-term environmental stewardship for all Americans.The proposed activities support the Agency’s Powering the Great American Comeback Initiative’s Pillar 1: Clean Air, Land, and Water for Every American. Priority Areas identified in this opportunity are:(1) Technical assistance and training for rural, small, and Tribal municipalities for planning, developing and acquisition of financing/funding for eligible projects and activities.• Technical assistance and training for rural, small, and Tribal publicly owned treatment works and decentralized wastewater systems to help improve water quality and to achieve and maintain compliance.(2) Technical assistance and training focused specifically on Tribes for planning, developing and acquisition of financing/funding, to help improve water quality and achieve and maintain compliance, and/or to support emerging contaminants project development.(3) Information dissemination, technical assistance and training focused specifically on decentralized wastewater treatment systems to support planning, development and acquisition of financing.Eligible entities for this grant program include nonprofit organizations and institutions of higher education that can provide technical assistance and training to rural, small, and Tribal municipalities, publicly owned wastewater treatment works, and decentralized wastewater treatment systems. Assisting systems with their technical, managerial, and financial capacity to achieve long-term compliance is a key priority for the Agency. Infrastructure construction projects such as repairing water or sewer lines, adding new equipment, or upgrading, retrofitting, or rehabilitating existing equipment are not eligible for funding under this announcement.
Funding Opportunity Number: EPA-OW-OWM-26-01. Assistance Listing: 66.446. Funding Instrument: CA. Category: ENV. Award Amount: Up to $3M per award.
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Or search similar grants →According to the current listing, eligibility includes: Eligible applicants: Others (see text field entitled Additional Information on Eligibility for clarification). See Section 2 of the Notice of Funding Opportunity for eligibility information. Confirm the full requirements in the official notice before applying.
The current listing shows up to $3M per award. Verify award ceilings, matching requirements, and allowable costs in the official notice.
Applications for Technical Assistance and Training for Rural, Small and Tribal Municipalities and Wastewater Treatment Systems are due August 14, 2026. Build your timeline backwards from this date to cover registrations, approvals, and final submission checks.
Yes — Technical Assistance and Training for Rural, Small and Tribal Municipalities and Wastewater Treatment Systems is offered by Environmental Protection Agency and this listing comes from Grants.gov, an official U.S. federal source. Federal applications generally require registrations (for example SAM.gov or an agency submission portal), so allow extra lead time.
Start from the official opportunity page linked in this listing — it carries the sponsor's submission instructions.
Past winners and funding trends for this program
On June 29, 2026, EPA announced it will waive the $25,000 WIFIA application fee and the credit processing fee — averaging roughly $156,000 per loan — for communities of 25,000 or fewer residents in fiscal years 2026 and 2027. Combined, that removes nearly $200,000 in upfront cost from the single most affordable federal water-infrastructure financing program, which carries roughly $11 billion in available capacity and can cover up to 80% of eligible project costs at Treasury-rate pricing. For small towns, rural utilities, and the nonprofits and districts that serve them, this is a rare instance of the federal government lowering the barrier to a program that has historically been out of reach for exactly the communities that need it most. Here is what changed, who qualifies, and how to move on a letter of interest before the window closes.
Read articleFor FY2026 and FY2027, EPA is waiving the $25,000 WIFIA application fee and the ~$156,000 credit-processing fee for water systems serving 25,000 or fewer people — a near-$200,000 discount on access to an $11 billion pool of low-cost federal financing. The waiver removes the single barrier that kept small and rural utilities out of WIFIA for a decade. Here is how WIFIA actually works, who qualifies, why the letter of interest is the real gate, and how a town of 8,000 should think about a program built for billion-dollar projects.
Read articleFor FY2026 and FY2027, EPA is waiving the WIFIA application and credit-processing fees for communities of 25,000 or fewer — saving nearly $200,000 per loan — against roughly $11 billion in flexible financing that covers up to 80 percent of project costs. Here is why WIFIA has been underused by small systems, how the loan actually works, and how a rural utility should build a WIFIA strategy in 2026.
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