Where: Trout Canyon, Clark County, Nevada

Problem: Small rural water systems struggle to access funding.

Solution: Rural Community Assistance Corporation (RCAC) completes Median Housing Income (MHI) survey to support loans and/or grant applications to multiple funding agencies.

Trout Canyon is a small, unincorporated community in Clark County, Nevada. Located 60 miles west of Las Vegas, the village is surrounded by the rugged Spring Mountains range, home to Mount Charleston and numerous outdoor recreation opportunities that draw visitors from both near and far. Trout Canyon has been without potable water since the Carpenter 1 Fire and subsequent flash flooding devastated the Spring Mountains in summer 2013, wiping out the community’s entire gravity-fed water system.

The Trout Canyon Land and Water Users Association (TCLWUA) serves the community, which consists of 25 residential connections, including vacation cabins and a few low-income, year-round residents. A small group of property owners formed the all-volunteer association in 2013 in a bid to rebuild the village’s water system but has faced challenges such as vandalism, bureaucratic inertia, a lack of direction and various other problems.

RCAC began working with Trout Canyon in 2018 at the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s request to identify funding options. In order to qualify for optimal funding options, TCLWUA needed to establish a Median Household Income (MHI) for its service area. Because Trout Canyon is close to higher-income communities, its census data was deemed unreliable, making an accurate household income estimate necessary to qualify for funding.

RCAC verified that the community’s MHI was lower than the census data reported, allowing residents to qualify for lower-interest loans and various grants. RCAC continues to provide technical assistance and other critical support to secure an emergency water source and funds to restore its water system.