Dive Brief:
- The Department of the Interior announced $849 million for 77 projects to revitalize aging water delivery systems across the West, according to a Dec. 3 news release.
- The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act funding supports projects in Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oregon, South Dakota, Utah and Washington, according to the release.
- These projects will improve water conveyance and storage, increase safety, improve hydropower generation and provide water treatment, per the release. Others will replace equipment for hydropower production and provide vital maintenance to aging buildings.
Dive Insight:
The projects selected for funding are part of the Biden administration’s effort to make Western communities more resilient to climate change and to address the ongoing megadrought across the region.
A big portion of the funding will go to projects working to bring the Colorado River — on which one in eight Americans depend, according to Vox — back from the brink of crisis amid the region’s worst dry spell in more than 1,200 years. Fourteen projects totaling $118.3 million will help support the Colorado River Basin, per the DOI.
New Mexico will receive $143 million to realign the Rio Grande for improved water conveyance and to provide a long-term strategy to manage sediment, while California is getting $204 million to address structural impacts to the Delta Mendota Canal from dropping groundwater levels.
“As we work to address record drought and changing climate conditions in the Colorado River Basin and throughout the West, these investments in our aging water infrastructure will conserve community water supplies and revitalize water delivery systems,” said Acting Deputy Secretary Laura Daniel-Davis in the release.
Water infrastructure is a booming industry right now in the U.S. and around the world: CEOs at Jacobs, AECOM, WSP and other major construction companies have talked about their positive outlook on the sector in recent earnings calls.