11-20-2008, 03:57 AM
That RUS grant is for communities that have had a recent decline in water quality.... and the money is very limited, $500,000 for two years...
"Grants made to alleviate a significant decline in quantity or quality of water available from the water supplies in rural areas that occurred within two years of filing an application with USDA cannot exceed $500,000."
One of the biggest problems on this island is that Safe Drinking Water Act & the Clean Water Act all have statements that look at decline in water quality.... and there is no data on this island for past water quality, so to show a decline (or improvement) is not an easy thing to do.... and it is hard to show a decline in water quality when there is no data... so unless there is data from Nanawale to back up the water quality decline in the last 2 years, this would be a tough grant to get.
At $500,000 this grant would not cover the cost of running water lines into Nanawale. Plus, you would probably hit a some of resistance from some of your fellow communitymembers, as I know of a few that relish not being tied to a government water system.....
Do you know if there is sufficient interest in Nanawale to warrant this action by the county?
Do you know if there is any decline in water quality, or have you checked with any of the water labs in the state for information on Nanwale water quality (this will be fairly tough, as private water systems probably also have private data...)?
Do you have any idea what the total cost of running water into Nanawale would be?
In a time of huge county cutbacks, running water lines may not be on the top of the county list of things to do, unless there is sufficient interest, need, and incentive...
"Grants made to alleviate a significant decline in quantity or quality of water available from the water supplies in rural areas that occurred within two years of filing an application with USDA cannot exceed $500,000."
One of the biggest problems on this island is that Safe Drinking Water Act & the Clean Water Act all have statements that look at decline in water quality.... and there is no data on this island for past water quality, so to show a decline (or improvement) is not an easy thing to do.... and it is hard to show a decline in water quality when there is no data... so unless there is data from Nanawale to back up the water quality decline in the last 2 years, this would be a tough grant to get.
At $500,000 this grant would not cover the cost of running water lines into Nanawale. Plus, you would probably hit a some of resistance from some of your fellow communitymembers, as I know of a few that relish not being tied to a government water system.....
Do you know if there is sufficient interest in Nanawale to warrant this action by the county?
Do you know if there is any decline in water quality, or have you checked with any of the water labs in the state for information on Nanwale water quality (this will be fairly tough, as private water systems probably also have private data...)?
Do you have any idea what the total cost of running water into Nanawale would be?
In a time of huge county cutbacks, running water lines may not be on the top of the county list of things to do, unless there is sufficient interest, need, and incentive...