Rural Community Assistance Partnership

Practical solutions for improving rural communities

May 2012

Register for webcast on “USDA’s NIFA-CEAP Watershed Synthesis: Lessons Learned”

Posted Tue, 2012/05/08 - 8:58am by RCAP

Join EPA for a free Watershed Academy Webcast titled "USDA’s NIFA-CEAP Watershed Synthesis: Lessons Learned” on May 15, 2012, from 1 to 3 p.m.

Principles for an Energy/Water Future document available

Posted Tue, 2012/05/08 - 8:54am by RCAP

EPA has drafted Principles for an Energy Water Future. EPA encourages all stakeholders – including government, utilities, private companies and ratepayers – to consider these principles and incorporate them into their work.

New DCS exe file (5/7/12)

Posted Mon, 2012/05/07 - 3:44pm by RCAP

Download the exe file

EPA releases draft permitting guidance for using diesel fuel in oil and gas hydraulic fracturing

Posted Mon, 2012/05/07 - 10:01am by RCAP

Guidance will clarify means of compliance with 2005 Amendments to the Safe Drinking Water Act

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released on May 4 draft underground injection control (UIC) program permitting guidance for class II wells that use diesel fuels during hydraulic fracturing activities.

ProPublica: New study predicts frack fluids can migrate to aquifers within years

Posted Fri, 2012/05/04 - 9:19am by RCAP

by Abrahm Lustgarten ProPublica, May 1, 2012, 4:29 p.m.

A new study has raised fresh concerns about the safety of gas drilling in the Marcellus Shale, concluding that fracking chemicals injected into the ground could migrate toward drinking water supplies far more quickly than experts have previously predicted.

EPA to work with drinking water systems to monitor unregulated contaminants

Posted Wed, 2012/05/02 - 11:42am by RCAP

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) published on May 1 a list of 28 chemicals and two viruses that approximately 6,000 public water systems will monitor from 2013 to 2015 as part of the agency’s unregulated contaminant monitoring program, which collects data for contaminants suspected to be present in drinking water but that do not have health-based standards set under the Safe Drinking Water Act.

EPA Celebrates American Wetlands Month

Posted Tue, 2012/05/01 - 3:12pm by RCAP

May marks the 21st anniversary of American Wetlands Month, a time when EPA and its wetland partners across the country celebrate the vital importance of wetlands to our nation's ecological, economic, and social health. EPA and a host of other public and private partners are planning a number of events as part of this year’s celebration:

ABC News profiles Colonias

Posted Tue, 2012/05/01 - 3:08pm by RCAP

ABC News, as part of its "Hidden America" series, produced a story on the Colonias in late April.

An ABC correspondent visited some of these communities in Texas along the Mexican border. The story desribes these communities as a "no-man's land" and "forgotten." These very poor communities that often have no services and where people live in make-shift homes are among the small, often unincorporated communities that RCAP works in.