[Agriculture Fact Book 98]

Rural Utilities Service

Rural Utilities Service (RUS) programs touch the lives of tens of millions of rural Americans daily. Through project financing and technical assistance, RUS builds infrastructure to provide rural businesses and households with modern telecommunications, electricity, and water. Today, this also means bringing the "information superhighway" to rural America.

The Water 2000 Initiative is an ambitious undertaking to extend safe, dependable drinking water to rural communities. At least 2.2 million rural Americans live with critical quality and accessibility problems with their drinking water, including an estimated 730,000 people who have no running water in their homes. Since it started in 1994, Water 2000 has already improved drinking water quality or provided a public water supply for the first time to some 2.5 million people in more than 1,300 rural communities nationwide.

RUS is a partner with rural business and economic development efforts, providing infrastructure that is the foundation for competitiveness. It is a technical and financial resource in a time of change for rural utilities.

Rural Telecommunications Loans and Loan Guarantees build modern rural communications systems that provide rural areas with "on ramps" to the information superhighway by making financing available for telecommunications facilities. Loans made to rural telephone cooperatives and companies help bring reliable and affordable telecommunications services to more than 15 million rural Americans.

Rural Electric Loans and Loan Guarantees provide reliable, safe, and affordable electricity to rural America by financing power distribution, generation, and transmission systems. Loans are made to nonprofit and cooperative associations, public bodies, and other utilities which serve more than 25 million rural Americans.

Distance Learning and Medical Link Loans and Grants bring distance learning and telemedicine to rural America. Education and adequate medical care are crucial to the survival of rural communities, but are becoming increasingly difficult to provide. This program employs innovative ways to use existing telecommunications infrastructure to extend the reach of educational and medical expertise into communities without that expertise. The new loan program is being developed to further expand rural telecommunications infrastructure.

Water and Waste Disposal Loans and Grants develop water and waste disposal systems (including solid waste disposal and storm drainage) in rural areas and towns with populations of less than 10,000. The funds are available to public entities such as municipalities, counties, special-purpose districts, Indian tribes, and nonprofit corporations. RUS also guarantees water and waste disposal loans made by banks and other eligible lenders.

Emergency Community Water Assistance Grants help rural communities that have experienced a significant decline in drinking water quantity or quality to make emergency repairs and replace existing facilities. Grants can be made in rural areas and towns with a population of 10,000 or less and a median household income of no more than 100 percent of the State’s median nonmetropolitan household income.

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