Water Well Trust seeks applicants for projects

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Water Well Trust, a national nonprofit helping Americans get access to a clean, safe water supply, has announced that it is still seeking applicants from 10 counties in northwest Arkansas and two Oklahoma counties for the drilling of new water wells or the rehabilitation of existing wells. The deadline to apply for the program is Sept. 30.

The USDA awarded a $140,000 matching grant to the Water Well Trust through its Household Water Well Systems Grant program for a project to increase potable water availability to rural households in 10 northwest Arkansas counties — Benton, Carroll, Crawford, Franklin, Johnson, Logan, Madison, Marion, Searcy and Washington — as well as Pawnee and Sequoyah Counties in Oklahoma.

The Water Well Trust has limited funds available for low-interest loans to eligible individual households in need of a new water well or rehabilitation of an existing water well. WWT limits funding to a maximum of $11,000 per household. Loans have an interest rate of 1 percent, with terms of up to 20 years.

To be eligible to receive a WWT loan, applicants must be the owner and occupant of the home as their primary residence. In addition, the applicant’s household income must not exceed 100 percent of the median non-metropolitan household income for the state in which the applicant resides. The 2015 non-metropolitan median household income for Arkansas is $44,700. The income criteria apply to both the applicant and all other occupants of the home.

In 2012, the Water Well Trust completed a project to supply safe drinking water to six families near Rogers which had been hauling water to use in their homes and buying bottled water for drinking and cooking for more than 15 years. The cost for extending public water service, an estimated $1.2 million, was prohibitive for both the families and water suppliers.

The final cost of this WWT project yielded a 94 percent cost savings for the community.

Prospective applicants can download the application form and instruction letter from the Water Well Trust website at waterwelltrust.org under “Apply” at the top of the home page.