Testimony of B. Roy Prescott
Chairman, Jerome County Board of Commissioners
before the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee
Hearing on EPA Improvement Legislation
Tuesday, September 26, 2000

Mr. Chairman and Members of the Committee, my name is Roy Prescott and I am the Chairman of the Board of County Commissioners for Jerome County, Idaho. I am here to give you a brief insight into the implementation and benefits of S. 2296, a bill that would establish Project SEARCH - the Special Environmental Assistance for Regulation of Communities and Habitat program funded through the Environmental Protection Agency for small communities under 2,500 people.

Rural Idaho communities are facing many of the same environmental challenges seen throughout the US, including the protection of groundwater, the disposal of waste water, the protection of critical habitat, and many others. Yet these small communities often find themselves without the financial resources to undertake the size and scope of project necessary to respond to environmental challenges.

In answer to their call for help in meeting environmental regulations and providing for liveability, several communities in Idaho prevailed on Congress to provide funding through a one-year Project SEARCH program. Our focus was to use these funds to help small rural communities solve their environmental problems. We targeted these communities because they generally have small operating budgets, only part-time staff, and lack the financial reserves so critical to being competitive in the normal public sector grant processes.

The 1999 initial grant of $1.3 million from EPA went to a local non-profit. This regional planning association, the Region IV Development Association, has considerable experience with grant processes and helping small communities. The Association created a simplified grant application that any part-time city officials or mayors could complete. A notice of the grant program availability and an application was sent to all of Idaho's counties and all cities with a Census population of less than 2,500.

To review the applications and ensure a fair, locally driven process, a seven-member Citizens Advisory Committee was formed. The Committee was comprised of one representative appointed by the local board of each of Idaho's six economic development planning regions, and one person who brought to the group his experience as a small town mayor and with the EPA's Small Town Task Force. This individual served as the Committee's Chair. These seven individuals, of which I was one, reviewed the applications and made the funding decisions.

Of the 47 applications received, were able to fund only 21. The funded applications ranged from a low of $9,000 for a facility plan so that a housing authority could solve its wastewater problems to a high of $319,000 for part of the funding needed for construction of a wastewater treatment facility in a very sensitive environmental area.

One project that we funded close to home involved a community of 150 attempting to install its first wastewater treatment system using the community residents for the needed labor. This "self-help" project had been struggling along for a couple of years with pipe stockpiled on the ground and no financial resources to finance a section of dangerous trenching that no volunteer felt safe (or capable) to complete. Project SEARCH funds enabled this community to complete this aspect of the project and refocus on getting the remainder of their sewer system completed. The people of this community will be hooking up homes to the new system this fall. Without Project SEARCH assistance, this project would still be years away from completion.

Implementation of Project SEARCH was not without its tense moments. The project grant from EPA required a 45% match. As previously mentioned, small communities generally cannot come up with the matching requirements for most public infrastructure grant programs -- effectively eliminating their potential for receiving grant assistance. As originally proposed, Project SEARCH was not much different in this regard -- many applicants could not meet the 45% match requirement. To overcome this obstacle, our grant administrator worked with EPA to structure the program so that each individual community would not be required to come up with a 45% match but rather that the overall program would be responsible for meeting the match requirement. As a result of this common-sense approach, we will meet EPA's 45% match requirement and the individual towns will be able to use Project SEARCH funds to solve their problems while participating to the maximum of their financial abilities. The small towns were able to match their Project SEARCH Grants with local resources ranging from 14% up to about 87%.

The Project SEARCH concept provides a flexibility not readily available with other public infrastructure grant programs. Yet this project has still been able to maintain full accountability through the EPA grant being awarded to an experienced local non-profit. Through this combination of local direction and federal partnering, Project SEARCH has enabled more direct infrastructure building/environmental problem solving dollars to get to the communities than if EPA had awarded individual grants.

Throughout the process of implementing this program, the Environmental Protection Agency, especially the Boise Field Office, was exceptional to work with. Project SEARCH has enabled 21 Idaho communities to solve or make major strides in solving their environmental problems that could not have been done otherwise. As a representative of small town America, I encourage you to fund this type of project in the future.

Thank you for your time.