RCAP Releases Regionalization Policy Recommendations Report

This week, the Rural Community Assistance Partnership (RCAP) released a report entitled, “Regionalization: RCAP’s Recommendations for Water and Wastewater Policy.” This research report explores how different types of government policies have helped or hindered regional solutions for water and wastewater collaboration in small, rural, and tribal communities across the US. It provides recommendations for implementing new policies and expanding and improving existing policies for different levels of government.

The report was released in conjunction with the RCAP webinar featuring speakers from five states that shared information about their regionalization efforts, incentives, and financing flexibilities. Speakers provided presentations about the Florida Water and Wastewater Agency Response Network (WARN), the Texas Water Infrastructure Coordination Committee (TWICC), the California Safe and Affordable Funding for Equity and Resilience (SAFER), as well as programs in Ohio and Pennsylvania. These programs highlight and align with the five main recommendations in the report for state government:

• Use the state WARN to its full potential.
• Provide funding for technical assistance to help small systems sign up for the WARN before a disaster hits.
• Extend funding prioritization in SRFs beyond consolidation to all types of partnerships.
• Use DWSRF set-asides to place more emphasis on regionalization.
• State laws should incentivize but most importantly should not prohibit regionalization.

For more information, read the report here.