EPA Local Government Advisory Committee: Small Communities Subcommittee

About the EPA Local Government Advisory Committee

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Local Government Advisory Committee (LGAC) is a federal advisory body established under the Federal Advisory Committee Act to provide the EPA Administrator with advice and recommendations on environmental policies, programs, and regulations as they affect state, local, and tribal governments. LGAC members are appointed by the EPA Administrator and serve two-year terms; the committee meets multiple times per year and submits formal recommendations to the Administrator on matters ranging from clean water regulations to environmental justice to infrastructure funding programs.

The Small Communities Advisory Subcommittee focuses specifically on the environmental policy challenges facing municipalities at the lower end of the population spectrum — typically communities under 10,000 residents — where the per-capita cost of environmental compliance is highest, the staff capacity is most limited, and the distance from federal policy discussions is greatest. Small communities frequently face the same regulatory requirements as large cities but with a fraction of the technical, legal, and financial resources available to comply.

The Appointment

EPA Administrator Michael S. Regan appointed Fraser to the Small Communities Advisory Subcommittee in August 2021 — concurrent with the launch of the Aberdeen Nutrient Credit Bank and the receipt of the VML Innovation Award for Environmental Sustainability. Fraser's appointment was based on his demonstrated track record in environmental innovation at the local level: a mayor who had built Virginia's largest municipal nutrient credit bank, deployed wastewater-based COVID surveillance before the federal CDC program existed, maintained 14 consecutive years of Tree City USA designation, and executed a Power Purchase Agreement with Dominion Energy — all in a town of 9,000 residents.

The appointment also reflects Fraser's private-sector background: his energy infrastructure experience at Green Powered Technology, his systems integration work at Verizon Business, and his advisory role with the Guyana Infrastructure Consortium gave him technical credibility that goes beyond the typical municipal official's environmental policy background. He brought to the LGAC a combination of small-community governance experience and private-sector technical depth that is unusual at the federal advisory level.

Policy Relevance

What the Appointment Reflects

A federal advisory committee appointment is not an honorary recognition — it is a substantive commitment to participate in policy deliberation at the national level, representing the interests of a specific constituency (small communities) in a forum with direct influence on EPA rulemaking. For a mayor of a 9,000-resident town to serve on a federal EPA advisory committee means that Purcellville's experience — with nutrient credits, PFAS, wastewater surveillance, and infrastructure finance — was contributing to the national policy conversation. Fraser used this position to ensure that the tools and programs that worked for Purcellville were visible to EPA policymakers as models worth scaling and that the regulatory burdens that small communities struggle with were understood at the federal level.