Collaborations & Partnerships Abound at NRWA WaterPro Conference

The National Rural Water Association (NRWA) held its annual WaterPro Conference in Fort Worth, Texas on September 17-19th and collaborations and partnerships were the focus of several of the keynote sessions and breakouts. Edna Primrose from USDA’s Rural Utilities Service (RUS) spoke on September 18th about their successes in partnering with NRWA and small systems across the country to provide funding for improvements at water and wastewater systems. RUS recently launched an electronic application (RD Apply) as an alternative to a paper application that was demonstrated at WaterPro.

The final keynote session on September 19th featured three speakers from EPA’s Office of Water, as well as Alan Roberson, ASDWA’s Executive Director. Using collaborations and innovative approaches for compliance was discussed in the context of EPA’s new strategic breakthrough measure to reduce non-compliance with health-based drinking water standards by 25% over the next four years.