Rural water leaders tell Minnesota commission small utilities lack basic cyber hygiene and face a funding cliff

Leaders from the Minnesota Rural Water Association told the Legislative Cybersecurity Commission on Feb. 11 that many small water and wastewater utilities in Minnesota lack basic cybersecurity hygiene, limited staffing and face funding gaps for technical assistance.

"We focus on small rural and … utilities with populations under 10,000," said Laurie Blair, MRWA executive director, describing the nonprofit’s training and grant‑assistance role. Blair said MRWA receives federal subawards (USDA, EPA) and runs training and assessment programs to help communities comply with infrastructure and resiliency requirements.

Boots‑on‑the‑ground findings: Tara Reinerson, who conducts disaster and cyber hygiene assessments, told commissioners she regularly finds operators and clerks unfamiliar with cybersecurity basics. "Most of the cities that I am able to visit have an IT and an OT relationship wise. They're not exactly talking to each other," Reinerson said, describing incidents of default passwords, phishing and lack of backups. She added that small operators sometimes have only a single shared laptop to operate critical systems.

Regulatory and training context: Reinerson said state rules require water systems to have an annual cybersecurity plan as of 2024, but many utilities simply pass that plan to an IT contractor and do not convene operators, clerks and IT together to test response. MRWA offers free statewide webinars and training but said the available resources are not yet sufficient to meet recurring turnover among local councils and clerks.

Funding cliff and circuit‑rider prospect: Blair said federal funding that supported MRWA’s cybersecurity circuit‑rider position runs out in May; she urged awareness that farm bill reauthorization language could create a national cybersecurity circuit‑rider program but that a successful reauthorization would take years before funds reached Minnesota as a subaward. She noted pilots in Oregon and Vermont as successful precedents.

Next steps and asks: MRWA asked the commission to consider ways to sustain technical assistance and to amplify outreach so small communities know what resources exist and how to use them; commissioners acknowledged the need to align state grant programs and training to fill gaps.