EPA earmarks $13 million for Missouri drinking water cleanup

Small, rural communities across the Show Me State will have a new pot of money to draw from when addressing water quality issues.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced Tuesday it will make $13.48 million available for rural Missouri communities through its Emerging Contaminants in Small or Disadvantages Communities (EC-SDC) grant program, according to an EPA press release.

The grant program aims to address drinking water contaminants, primarily polyfluroalkyl substances, also known as PFAS. The grant aims to help small or disenfranchised communities meet their needs without breaking the bank.

A total of “$13,488,000 is available for communities, drinking water systems and private well owners to help with testing, planning and infrastructure projects addressing PFAS and other emerging contaminants,” the agency said in a Tuesday press release.

The EC-SDC grant program is offering $1 billion in nationwide funding in 2026, with a total of $5 billion offered during the past five years across two presidential administrations.

“Sustained investment of this scale helps drive down the per-system cost of treatment, generates real-world performance data that better informs utility decision-making, accelerates innovation in destruction and disposal technologies, and helps mitigate PFAS across the many forms in which it appears in source water,” the agency said.

The money will be administered through the state of Missouri with the state holding final say on which communities are eligible.

According to the Safe Drinking Water Act, states have statutory discretion to set their own definitions of a “disadvantaged community.” The act, which was passed by Congress in 1974, defines a disadvantaged community as “the service area of a public water system that meets affordability criteria established after public review and comment by the state in which the public water system is located.”

The definition of “small community” is more clear-cut, with any community with a population less than 10,000 that does not have the ability to incur debt to finance drinking water improvements meeting the eligibility criteria. Every incorporated municipality in Cole County outside of Jefferson City will qualify for the grant.

To learn more about the program, visit www.epa.gov/dwcapacity/emerging-contaminants-ec-small-or-disadvantaged-communities-grant-sdc#applicants1.