ALBUQUERQUE – Acting Deputy Secretary of the Interior Laura Daniel-Davis today announced more than $520 million from President Biden’s Investing in America Agenda to revitalize aging water delivery systems across the West. The funding will support 57 projects across all six regions served by the Bureau of Reclamation to improve water conveyance and storage, increase safety, improve hydropower generation, and provide water treatment. To strengthen America’s climate resilience, President Biden secured more than $50 billion for climate resilience and adaptation through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and Inflation Reduction Act, and established a National Climate Resilience Framework, which is advancing locally tailored, community-driven climate resilience strategies.
Acting Deputy Secretary Daniel-Davis made the announcement while visiting the Middle Rio Grande in New Mexico. Five projects in New Mexico are receiving a total of $14.7 million in funding for aging infrastructure. More than $10 million of the funding is for a realignment project of the Rio Grande channel to improve water conveyance, critical habitat and sedimentation control in an area south of Albuquerque near the Bosque del Apache Wildlife Refuge. To date, the Department has announced $318.8 million from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and $69.5 million from the Inflation Reduction Act for projects in New Mexico.
“President Biden’s Investing in America agenda is making historic investments to provide clean, reliable water to families, farmers and Tribes and to make western communities more resilient to drought and climate change,” said Acting Deputy Secretary Laura Daniel-Davis. “These investments in our aging water infrastructure will conserve community water supplies and revitalize water delivery systems building reliability and sustainability for generations to come.”
“Reclamation’s commitment to ensuring our infrastructure is ready to deliver water, produce hydropower and continue providing recreation is evident in these project selections,” said Reclamation Commissioner Camille Calimlim Touton. “We continue to use this historic investment from President Biden’s Investing in America agenda’s Investing in America agenda to build drought resiliency and improve our projects to ensure continued water delivery across the west.”
Today’s visit follows Secretary Deb Haaland’s announcement last week of a $60 million investment from the Inflation Reduction Act for water conservation and drought resilience in the Rio Grande Basin. These resources will ensure greater climate resiliency and water security for communities below Elephant Butte Reservoir and into West Texas. The water savings from the proposed projects are anticipated to be in the tens of thousands of acre-feet per year.
President Biden’s Investing in America agenda represents the largest investment in climate resilience in the nation’s history and is providing much-needed resources to enhance Western communities’ resilience to drought and climate change. Through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, Reclamation is investing a total of $8.3 billion over five years for water infrastructure projects, including rural water, water storage, conservation and conveyance, nature-based solutions, dam safety, water purification and reuse, and desalination. Since the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law was signed in November 2021, Reclamation has announced more than $3 billion for 530 projects.