Regionalization / Partnerships

• RCAP Regionalization Work
  A deep dive on the benefits and opportunities of Regionalization featuring reports on lessons learned and policy recommendations.
• RCAP Regionalization Guide
  The publication will explain the diverse spectrum of regional collaboration options available, examples of how they have been implemented successfully including best practices, benefits, and barriers, as well as tools and resources to help navigate the process. This guidebook is meant for both community and water/wastewater utility leaders and staff as well as for the technical assistance providers (TAPs) that serve them.
• Affordability and Capacity Issues of Small Water and Wastewater Systems: A Case for Regionalization of Small Systems
  There is widespread agreement that water and wastewater services are vital to the sustainability of a community, but small rural towns face considerable and persistent challenges in developing and maintaining them.
• A Drop of Knowledge: Partnering by Example
  Article on how RCAP, its regional partners, EPA, and CADMUS have partnered to offer a new set of training materials to help educate water stakeholders on the value of partnerships..
• A Drop of Knowledge: How to Leverage Regional Collaboration for Your Community
  A blog post explaining types of regional collaboration and how communities can utilize it.
• Rural Matters, Fall 2020: The Collaboration Issue
  This issue focuses on RCAP’s work on regionalization across the country, including how difficult conversations often lead to positive outcomes for communities that work together.
• Rural Matters, Fall 2019: The Regionalization Issue
  This issue is focused on regionalization work across RCAP, which focuses on cross-community collaboration and sharing of resources to provide clean water, wastewater, and solid waste services to rural America.
• EPA: Water System Partnerships
  This interactive website for water system partnerships is a one-stop-shop for states, public water systems, and the general public to find cooperative tools to address their drinking water challenges.
• UNC Environmental Finance Center: Utility Regionalization and Consolidation Guides
  Guides on best practices in drafting water and wastewater inter-local agreements and on options and considerations for the consolidation of water and wastewater systems
• Environmental Financial Advisory Board: Funding Strategies to Promote System Regionalization
  This EFAB report identifies and evaluates financing strategies designed to assist and or incentivize water and wastewater systems to implement governance strategies that includes system consolidation, regional projects, and shared service arrangements.
• EPA Water System Partnerships Workshop
  The Water System Partnerships Workshop is the result of collaboration between EPA, states, technical assistance providers, other federal partners, utilities, and water organizations. The purpose of the Partnerships Workshop is to increase awareness about the wide range of water system partnerships opportunities and how partnerships can address technical, managerial, and financial (TMF) challenges at water systems.

RCAP Educational Program Materials

• Webinar: Systems Helping Systems: A Conversation on Utility Collaboration
  This webinar explored the elements are needed to make a partnership successful, how communities can move from informal collaboration to more formal arrangements, and the importance of having a local champion.