On Jan. 17, the Southwestern Water Conservation District, the Southwestern Water Conservation and Infrastructure Partnership and its 37 regional partners celebrated a $25.6 million grant from the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation to address the impacts of drought on aquatic habitats in the Colorado River Basin.
For the SWCD, that includes 17 projects across the Dolores and San Juan River Basins, tributaries to the Colorado River. The total award was $29.3 million including the $3.7 million in cash and in-kind funding from tribal, federal, state and local entities representing local and regional stakeholders.
The funding, the result of a broad public-private partnership, was hard-earned. Recognizing a need for more capacity and projects to be more competitive, the SWCD board of directors sought and secured a capacity building grant in early 2024 from the Colorado Water Conservation Board, and took a new approach to improve its odds. It established a far-reaching rural partnership that Steve Wolff, SWCD General Manager, said in a press release was as unprecedented as the funding.
It also may be short-lived and would be a serious setback for our region.
On Jan. 20, via a sweeping executive order titled “Unleashing American Energy,” President Donald Trump ordered federal agencies to halt funding associated with the Inflation Reduction Act, the source of the Bureau of Recreation award.
The order seeks to eliminate “burdensome and ideologically motivated regulations that have impeded the development of these resources, limited the generation of reliable and affordable electricity, reduced job creation, and inflicted high energy costs upon our citizens.” It also seeks to “restore American prosperity to the men and women who have been forgotten by our economy in recent years.”
This makes no sense. The order and these projects are unrelated. Stabilizing river banks, removing invasive plant species, restoring wetlands and riparian areas, improving fish passage and habitat connectivity, and erosion control, the projects’ focus, are not ideological, nor impeding energy development.
Colorado projects, many on the Western Slope, stood to benefit upward of $100 million. Outside the SWCD award, the Southern Ute Indian Tribe was to receive $16.7 million to improve ecosystem health in the Pine River watershed.
Wolff said it best in an interview with The Colorado Sun, (Jan. 23): “We would all be very disappointed if any of this money was removed. These funds are really bipartisan and are meant to get put on the ground and do good work.”
As the Journal editorial board said with respect to the pardon of the Jan. 6 insurrectionists (Journal, Jan. 22), this is not likely what Trump voters signed up for. This action in fact hurts those he pledged to lift up. These are federal funds that are invested locally in people, businesses and communities.
Trump’s executive order may put a halt to the funding awarded to Colorado River Basin communities in Colorado, Utah, New Mexico and Wyoming working to address drought and corresponding dwindling water supplies that affect us all, including many who voted to put Trump in office.
Project proponents come from different backgrounds and parts of the region, but all share the same goal: to address the drought crisis with projects that will improve drought resilience.
The Journal’s editorial board wants to laud the accomplishment and congratulate all involved, and encourage freshman Rep. Jeff Hurd to work with the Trump administration and his Republican colleagues to get this funding for Southwest Colorado and much of the 3rd Congressional District back on track.
