USDA Supports Drinking Water Clearinghouse

The National Environmental Services Center (NESC) National Drinking Water Clearinghouse has been awarded $800,000 by the USDA Rural Development Rural Utilities Service to continue operations.

The National Drinking Water Clearinghouse, based at West Virginia University, offers free and low-cost information and assistance to small towns and rural areas across the country. “Over the past two decades, we’ve expanded and adapted our services,” says Gerald Iwan, Ph.D., NESC’s executive director. “What hasn’t changed, though, is our commitment to providing assistance, solutions, and knowledge for solving small community environmental challenges.”

To help small communities address their drinking water needs, NESC’s National Drinking Water Clearinghouse offers a technical assistance hotline (800-624-8301), electronic publications On Tap and Pipeline, a comprehensive website (www.nesc.wvu.edu), and more than 1,200 educational products. NESC’s staff of engineers, water system operators, and specialists provides information on subjects ranging from household wells, source water protection and conservation issues, and water treatment technologies to treatment plant operation and management, updates about regulations, and funding sources for community water infrastructure.