What is "system capacity"? The technical, managerial and financial resources of a water system necessary to enable the system to consistently provide safe drinking water for its users.
The physical infrastructure of the water system, including but not limited to source water adequacy, infrastructure adequacy (including wells, source water intakes, and collection, treatment, storage and distribution), and the ability of system personnel to implement the requisite technical knowledge necessary to operate the system to consistently provide safe drinking water.
The management structure of the water system, including but not limited to ownership accountability, staffing and organization, and the effectiveness of interactions of system personnel with customers, regulators and other entities, and the awareness of system personnel of available external resources, such as technical and financial assistance.
The financial resources of the water system, including but not limited to revenue sufficiency, credit worthiness and fiscal management and controls.
Each capacity element overlaps and consequently supports the others, any weakness or failure of an individual element can lead to the collapse of the others. It is the intent of the Capacity Development Program to prevent the creation of nonviable public water systems, to identify systems at risk and to assist system to acquire, enhance and maintain system capacity.
Capacity Development Grant Funding
The Drinking Water Program has grant money available for public water systems to enhance system capacity. Eligible water systems can receive grants for the preparation of documents that will assist them in the maintenance or enhancement of water quality by identifying possible improvements in systems technical, managerial and financial operations. For more information visit the Financial Resources section of our website.
Capacity Development Review
The Drinking Water Program requires that all water systems receiving Drinking Water State Revolving Loan Funds (DWSRF) undergo a Capacity Development Review. A Capacity Development Review assesses the technical, managerial, and financial capacity of a water system to ensure that they have sufficient capacity to proceed with a DWSRF loan.
For more information about the Capacity Development Program, contact Sara Flanagan at (207) 287-5678.
For Capacity Development information from EPA, visit: https://water.epa.gov/type/drink/pws/smallsystems/