Environmental Protection Agency · Water & Wastewater
Hardship Grants Program for Rural Communities
Funds drinking-water and wastewater compliance projects in rural and small communities facing financial hardship. State pass-through with small-system priority.
Program facts
- Typical award
- $50K – $2M
- Non-federal match
- Varies by NOFO
- Audience
- Cities, towns, counties, and tribal governments
- Application window
- State pass-through cycles.
- Typical prep time
- 8–14 weeks
- Statutory authority
- Clean Water Act §104(b); annual EPA appropriations
Catalog entry last verified 2026-05-24 · Verify on the agency page →
Eligibility at a glance
- Cities are eligible applicants.
- Rural eligibility: population under 50,000 (USDA threshold).
- Population ceiling: no more than 3,000.
Eligibility limited to communities with median household income below state average. Amounts and timing approximate; verify directly with administering agency.
How Strategic Pursuit scores this program
When you run a city dossier, Strategic Pursuit cross-checks the city's demographics, federal award history, disaster history, and CEJST burden categories against this program's eligibility and strategic-fit signals. You see an explicit eligibility / strategic / competitive grade — backed by source citations — instead of a generic "match" badge.
Planning purposes only. Award ranges, match percentages, and application windows on this page summarize the latest publicly available agency guidance and are approximate. Always verify the binding NOFO on the administering agency's page before applying.