RCAP's approach to how we serve rural communities

 

Sustainability is a word that gets used a lot when talking about community development. Although often seen as a broad “buzzword”, a focus on sustainability has been part of RCAP's work since it began. The definitions and characteristics of sustainability have evolved a lot in recent years, but basically it includes planning, taking a long-term perspective, and finding ways to be self-reliant.

 

RCAP wants the water utilities it works with to be in good standing, both in the short- and long-term. So RCAP understands sustainability for the communities it serves to mean consistently providing safe, high-quality water to a community's residents while meeting all regulatory responsibilities over the long-term.

 

One reason sustainability is so important for rural water utilities is the current situation of having to do more with less (especially in the financial area) and many looming issues. In the coming years, drinking water systems will face unprecedented challenges, such as water shortages, an aging infrastructure and workforce, and a lack of funding. This means that maintaining a financially sustainable utility and providing water and/or wastewater disposal services at an affordable cost to customers will continue to be one of the biggest challenges to a successful and sustainable utility.  

 

RCAP works with small communities on a fixed-term basis, for a number of months or years, but is  not a “parachute” organization–one that drops into a community from the outside, does its work quickly to fix a problem and then exits. RCAP’s work is carried out by our six regional partners [1] in our network, and staff of each region live and work among the communities that we help. Over the months or years that an RCAP staff member, often described as a technical assistance providers (TAP), works in a community and with its residents, he or she comes to know that community well, and often friendships within the community develop.

 

Harold Hunter Sr., Development Management Specialist with Community Resource Group, the Southern RCAP, states, “I strive to help the board/council/mayor to resolve at least one of their water or sewer issues and as a result, receive invitation(s) to community happenings. In other words, it’s my goal to have the community feel that we not only resolved a problem but became such good friends that they often invite us to participate in an annual community event.”

 

So staff members know an area and its people well. They know communities and their challenges, and they know what sort of solutions will work and how best to implement them. Working in this way, RCAP can bring a capacity-building and holistic approach to assist communities in improving their lives. We consider all activities within a situation and integrate water resources, economics and social issues into decision making. RCAP provides a full range of capacity-building services.

 

RCAP's assistance to communities is on-site and community-specific – custom-designed, in other words. In their work with a community, TAPs take into consideration the surrounding issues and other factors that affect the main focus of our work – water and wastewater systems. Although each community is unique, RCAP applies its general best practices from its decades of experience. Small communities in California often face the same issues as those in Maine or Minnesota, and efforts are made within the network to share experiences and practices among the members of the network (through publications, other communications vehicles, training, conferences, etc.).

 

What does this mean? In essence, although RCAP works with communities with a focus on building, maintaining or expanding their water and wastewater infrastructure, RCAP is often guided by a more holistic vision of capacity-building in communities. We know from our experiences that the leadership, management skills and networks a community’s residents gain through work on an infrastructure project can be transferred to other projects and in addressing other needs of their community. General capacity-building – expanded skills and the ability to solve other problems – is a positive byproduct of RCAP’s work in communities. In other words, communities gain beneficial broader skills in becoming organized, learning to plan, managing large projects, accessing resources, etc., and these skills can be applied to tackling other challenges. After RCAP finishes our work on a water or wastewater project, the hope is that the community is sustainable – able to keep not only its utility operating in an effective and efficient manner and for the long-term, but also at a new level to continue improvements in related and new areas – economic development, public health, improving housing or educational opportunities, etc.

 

In this process, RCAP is also fostering individual and community self-determination. Our services include helping communities to monitor and research their land use and water resource needs and to establish appropriate plans of action. This is another part of our integrated approach with communities, which includes addressing the management of natural resources. 

 

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's web page on Better Management [2] gives the perspective of sustainability from a major federal agency, one that has a direct impact on the work of water and wastewater systems in small, rural communities. Adopting new management practices helps improve the sustainability of water and wastewater systems by reducing costs and strengthening infrastructure.  

 

 

The main rationale from an economic and capacity perspective that RCAP uses in its work is that small, rural communities are at a disadvantage when maintaining their water systems than their urban counterparts.

 

The financial burden of maintaining safe water systems is quite high for small communities. According to EPA assessments, ratepayers in small communities bear four times the cost of operating and maintaining community water systems than do ratepayers in larger communities. Small communities also do not have the scale of a large customer base to finance projects to upgrade or improve their water systems. The EPA’s most recent Drinking Water Infrastructure Needs Survey reported that the overall nationwide investment necessary for communities of 10,000 or fewer is nearly $72 billion, or 26 percent of total investment necessary for current and future drinking water needs. RCAP assists communities in finding both private and public resources to help them meet this financial gap. RCAP has positioned itself as a provider of assistance to help these communities’ water systems achieve or maintain compliance with rules and regulations.

 

While residents of small, rural communities comprise less than a quarter of the nation’s population, they account for more than 85 percent of the country’s community water systems and are more likely than larger systems to report major drinking water violations. In fact, according to EPA data, 93 percent of reported Maximum Contaminant Level (MCL) and Treatment Technique (TT) violations reported in 2002 were among community water systems serving fewer than 10,000 people. MCL and TT violations include violations in allowable levels of organic and inorganic contaminants such as arsenic, benzene, atrazine, lead, copper and nitrate. Part of the reason for these high numbers is the lack of capacity among local elected officials to provide adequate oversight and technical expertise for dealing with the complexities of maintaining a safe and clean supply of drinking water. RCAP’s role is to provide this additional capacity and to help develop long-term capacity locally.

 

 

These approaches are especially important because of the types of communities we work with. Most of our programs and services are directed toward minority and low-income communities. Since our primary constituency lives in the poorest parts of their states, our work is one way that communities can reverse the cycle of poverty that has gripped millions of rural Americans. While the shorter-term and tangible benefits from RCAP’s work in a community are an improved water or wastewater system, the other benefits hopefully include equipping and empowering a disadvantaged community with the skills and motivation to continue to improve their lives.