A screenshot of the homepage of the website for the National Onsite Wastewater Recycling Association (NOWRA), taken on December 5, 2025.

Who Is NOWRA and What Do They Do?

ByLaura Schultz

The National Onsite Wastewater Recycling Association (NOWRA) is the principal national non-profit organization in the United States dedicated to advancing the onsite and decentralized wastewater industry. All types of related professions are represented in membership; including installers, regulators, manufacturers, suppliers, educators, and more. 

The association has been advocating for sound practices, public awareness, and solutions to challenges for the onsite and decentralized industry since its founding in 1992. NOWRA’s national headquarters are located in Westford, Massachusetts, though a number of state-level affiliates can be found throughout the U.S.

NOWRA’s official mission statement is as follows:

  • To strengthen and promote the onsite and decentralized wastewater industry through activities that support recognition and promotion of professionalism for industry practitioners.
  • To implement best management practices throughout the industry that provide sustainable wastewater infrastructure solutions.
  • To achieve greater public awareness of the economic, environmental, and public health benefits of onsite and decentralized facilities.
  • To serve the public interest.

This mission’s execution is guided by a Strategic Framework for Unsewered Wastewater Infrastructure. The principal goal of this framework is to achieve sustainable development and protect both human health and environmental quality. Click here to read more about the framework and its seven components. 

NOWRA’s website has a number of resources available for members, including a news & publications page, a documents library, an events calendar with national & state-level events, and a signup form for the group’s email newsletter. You can locate septic system professionals through the Septic Locator tool; all NOWRA members are automatically listed to the locator database.

Educational Resources for the Industry and the Public

Perhaps most importantly, NOWRA has a wealth of educational courses for continuing education purposes available. NOWRA’s “Installer Academy” ensures that all industry professionals can access quality training. Courses are available both in self-paced online formats or in-person through trainings arranged by request with NOWRA’s expert instructors. Popular online courses include “NOWRA A-Z,” an overview of onsite wastewater treatment; “NOWRA Installer Training,” an overview of installation for both new and experienced installers; “NOWRA Troubleshooting,” an overview of the typical treatment process; and “NOWRA Design,” a framework for designing decentralized systems. 

NOWRA online courses can be purchased by both members and non-members, but are available to members at a discount. Seventeen states have pre-approved some or all of NOWRA’s courses for continuing education credits; you can see the breakdown of these states at this page.

Five NOWRA state affiliate organizations have developed online training classes that are available on NOWRA’s e-learning platform and are approved for continuing education credit in their state. Additionally, several more state affiliates are in the process of developing courses to list on NOWRA, which will continue to expand access to convenient online educational opportunities across the country. Currently, members of the state affiliates in Missouri, Ohio, Texas, Virginia, and Washington state can use the NOWRA e-learning platform to access such courses.

There is a limited set of free, non-credit earning webinars on business and industry topics available:

The association also has a number of resources available for community education. Decentralized wastewater systems and the advantages they provide are often poorly understood. A long list of resources explaining the benefits, details, and funding of onsite and decentralized systems may be found here. Other top homeowner resources include a free webinar available for homeowners at NOWRA’s e-learning academy: “Onsite Wastewater Treatment System Homeowner Education;” and the Onsite Wastewater Treatment System Users Guide, co-produced with the Rural Community Assistance Partnership, available in both English and Spanish.

Making Connections at the Onsite Wastewater Mega-Conference and in Washington

Each year, NOWRA holds an onsite wastewater mega-conference in conjunction with the National Association of Wastewater Technicians (NAWT) and the State Onsite Regulators Association (SORA). The 2025 event was held in Sandusky, Ohio, and papers and presentations from the conference are available to review here. Next year’s event will be held from October 25-28, in Westminster, Colorado. Registration for both attendees and exhibitors will likely be open in the summer of 2026.

You can also see some of our team’s favorite presentations from the 2024 and 2025 mega-conferences in past blog posts.

If you are interested in lobbying, NOWRA is constantly working in Washington, D.C., at the Capitol and the EPA, advocating to make sure there is always a seat at the table for those in the onsite and decentralized wastewater industry when it comes to wastewater policy and funding. There are a variety of ways you can get involved in the advocacy and lobbying arm of NOWRA.

DecentralizedWastewater.org and NOWRA

At DecentralizedWastewater.org, we currently have 177 NOWRA resources indexed in our documents database. To find them, select “HOST” in the dropdown menu, then choose “National Onsite Wastewater Recycling Association.” Once you make that selection, a second dropdown will appear where you can choose “CATEGORY,” “TYPE,” or “STATE” to narrow the search even further. If you have a specific search term in mind, use the “Keyword Filter” search bar on the right side of the screen. 

Any live event hosted by NOWRA, such as the original sessions of the free webinars listed above or their joint in-person workshop series with RCAP, will be listed in our events calendar.

Since the launch of DecentralizedWastewater.org in the spring of 2024, NOWRA has been a valuable resource and partner to our team in the development of our website. The NOWRA leadership team in particular has provided helpful insights and industry connections as we continue to promote the services we offer to members of the wastewater sector.

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From furthering education to assistance in growing businesses to information and outreach to national advocacy, there are many reasons to become a NOWRA member. To learn how to join the national organization or one of the 25 state-level affiliates, visit this page. Direct NOWRA membership costs $150 per year for industry professionals, $95 per year for industry regulators, and $35 per year for students.