At the Upper Colorado River Basin, where climate change and drought have severely affected the landscape and water resources, the Biden administration put into effect a Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to further help mitigate consequences and enhance drought-related data collection.
The Department of Interior on Monday announced $50 million in spending to amplify key water infrastructure over the next five years.
According to a news release through the Bureau of Reclamation, the historic investments to protect and sustain the Colorado River System are made through the president’s Investing in America Agenda. The bipartisan infrastructure law helps strengthen Western communities by contributing essential resources that can counter drought and climate change and protect the Colorado River System’s sustainability efforts.
The Agenda assists to further the Drought Contingency Planning activities in the Upper Colorado River Basin and obliges with the Colorado River Drought Contingency Plan Authorization Act (P.L. 116-14).
An initial $8.7 million in fiscal year 2023 by the Bureau of Reclamation will support drought mitigation efforts in the Upper Basin states – Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming. This funding minimizes adverse impacts to resources and infrastructure in the region, ensures that compliance with interstate water compact continues and maintains hydropower at Glen Canyon Dam in Northern Arizona.
The spending will acquire and install 12 new eddy covariance stations that measure evapotranspiration, calculating consumptive water use. As of now, the Upper Basin holds only four, one in each Upper Basin state.
Between 2018 through 2020, the Bureau of Reclamation, the Upper Basin states and other partners studied evapotranspiration and found that the data provided critical awareness of the value to expand the data.
Over the next five years, Reclamation will invest $8.3 billion for water infrastructure projects – water purification and reuse, water storage and conveyance, desalination and dam safety.
The Inflation Reduction Act will finance an additional $4.6 billion to address the historic drought.
In addition, the DOI announced the subsequent investments for the Colorado River Basin states that will yield hundreds of thousands of acre-feet of water savings per year once the projects are achieved.
Some of these investments include:
$281 million for 21 water recycling projects that the annual water capacity would grow by 127,000 acre-feet per year. This includes $14.3 billion at Utah’s Weber Basin Water Conservancy District.
More than $73 million for infrastructure repairs on water delivery systems.
$71 million for 32 drought resiliency projects to expand that would dilate access to water through aquifer recharge, rainwater harvesting and water treatment, including Colorado, New Mexico and Utah.
$20 million for advanced small surface groundwater storage. This includes $4.7 million for Utah’s Washington County Water Conservancy District’s Ash Creek Project.
“The Biden-Harris administration is committed to bringing every tool and every resource to bear as we work with states, Tribes, and communities throughout the West to find long-term solutions in the face of climate change and the sustained drought it is creating,” Deputy Secretary Tommy Beaudreau said in a news release. “As we look toward the next decade of Colorado River guidelines and strategies, we are simultaneously making smart investments that will make our path forward stronger and more sustainable.”
