Thursday, November 21, 2024
11/21/2024
<p>The Inter Tribal Council of Arizona, Inc. (ITCA) is an intertribal consortium, non-profit organization comprised of 21 tribal nations located in the State of Arizona. ITCA was the first and is now the largest U.S. EPA-approved provider of water operator certification services under the National Tribal Drinking Water Operator Certification Program. For over 35 years, ITCA has performed the critical function (for tribes and by tribes) of empowering tribal water and wastewater operators by ensuring they have the knowledge, skills, and abilities necessary to provide adequate and reliable drinking water and sanitation services to tribal communities in a sustainable manner that is protective of both human health and the environment. ITCA is the primary provider of tribally-led water and wastewater systems operations training, certification, and technical assistance services to tribal communities located in and near Arizona. On a larger scale, however, the drinking water and sanitation services in rural low-income tribal communities often do not meet public health and community sustainability needs. Annually, 57% of tribal public water systems are in non-compliant with the federal Safe Drinking Water Act. In response to this unfortunate national trend, ITCA is ready to expand its highly successful and very meaningful program. ITCA proposes to provide its technical assistance, training, and tribal operator certification services to small, rural, low-income tribal communities located in EPA Regions 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10. The following five project activities will be implemented. First, ITCA will building tribal utility management through training and professional manager credentialing, Tribal Utility TuneUp Workshops, utility manager workgroup forums, and management assistance. Second, ITCA will build water utility resilience through training, mutual aid arrangements, standard operating procedures, source water protection, and resiliency assista nce. Third, tribal utility financial management capabilities will be improved through training, expert assistance, and utility-wide efficiencies modeling. Fourth, tribal regulatory knowledge and skills will be improved through training, jurisprudence regulations exams, and compliance assistance. Fifth, tribal water utilities technical operations and maintenance capacity will be improved through technical assistance, training, operator certification, and workforce resources and recognition. American Indian Reservations represent the smallest communities that operate water utility services and have community members with the lowest incomes. Therefore, this project is in direct alignment with the DHHS and the Rural Community Development Program purpose and goals. This 60-month (five-year) proposed project would be implemented over the time period of September 30, 2020, through September 29, 2025. The funding amount requested for the first 12- month budget period (September 30, 2020, through September 29, 2021) is $1,156,250. With an estimated value of contributed/donated services of $145,898 (11%), the estimated combined total cost for the first 12-month budget period is $1,302,148. The labor needed to implement this project will be performed as follows: 73% by in-house ITCA staff, 13% by consultant subject-matter experts, and 14% contributed.</p>
HHS’ Tracking Accountability in Government Grants System (TAGGS) website provides access to detailed descriptions of grants, loans, aggregated direct payments and other types of financial assistance awarded by the HHS Operating Divisions (OPDIVs) and the Office of the Secretary Staff Divisions (STAFFDIVs).
