Regionalization/Recommendations for Water and Wastewater Policy: Rural Community Assistance Partnership Report

The Rural Community Assistance Partnership (“RCAP”) issued a May report titled:

Regionalization: RCAP’s Recommendations for Water and Wastewater Policy (“Report”)

Authors/contributors include:

• Laura Landes
• Eric LaRose
• Sarah Buck
• Nathan Ohle
• Ted Stiger
• Glenn Barnes
• Malini Sekhar
• Coye Gerald

The Report defines regionalization as:

. . . a spectrum of collaborative activities, ranging from the most informal to the most formal of partnerships between communities in the same geographic area.

The Report argues that small, rural, and tribal communities:

. . . have a lot to gain from potential partnerships with one another in the form of regional collaboration between water and/or wastewater systems – what RCAP calls “regionalization.”

The potential advantages or gains that could be provided to communities from regionalization of such services are stated to include:

• Improved access to services
• Creating economies of scale
• Assistance in achieving sustainability or water/wastewater systems

Impediments to cooperation or collaboration are stated to include:

• Lack of knowledge or misunderstanding of such potential benefits
• Costs
• Absence of will to pursue a regional solution
• Policies at the local, state, and/or federal level

The Report includes a chart that addresses the regionalization policies in selected states (including Arkansas) for the following categories:

• Consolidating Systems prioritized for DWSRF funding
• Partnering systems (more generally) prioritized for DWSRF funding
• Consolidating Systems prioritized for DWSRF principal forgiveness
• Partnering systems (more generally) prioritized for DWSRF principal forgiveness
• State loan funds or incentive programs exist for consolidating systems
• State loan funds or incentive programs exist for partnering (generally) systems
• Capacity development program identifies and facilitates partnerships
• State allows contract operator/ operator sharing
• Regional planning incorporates water supply planning
• State can appoint a receiver
• State requires new systems to consider interconnection to existing systems
• Water and Wastewater Emergency Mutual Aid agreement exists

Key sections of the Report include:

• Partnerships Take Many Forms: Defining Regionalization
• RCAP’s Perspective on Regionalization and our Methodology
• Highlights: 22 Policy Recommendations for Water and Wastewater Regionalization
• RCAP’S Policy Recommendations for Water and Wastewater Systems

A copy of the Report can be downloaded here.