Western Water Projects to See Funding

February 10, 2012 Anthony DeRosa

On February 8th, Department of Interior Secretary Ken Salazar issued a press release relating to funding for several significant Western US water infrastructure projects. Managed through the Department’s Bureau of Reclamation, the identified projects all have a drinking water component. Please read below for excerpts from the release:

“Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar today announced $50 million in funding for water infrastructure projects in the West – including $30 million in funding for rural water construction projects. The funding will support a variety of efforts – providing financial assistance and construction support for rural water projects, addressing aging infrastructure to maintain system reliability and safety, restoring aquatic habitat and meeting the increasing water demands of the western United States. The six rural water projects will help advance six infrastructure projects that will deliver clean, reliable drinking water to remote areas. The projects are:

$10.9 million for the Garrison Diversion Unit (Pick-Sloan Missouri Basin Program) in North Dakota. This will allow the Spirit Lake Tribe to replace an existing water storage reservoir, known as Spirit Lake-Tokio Tank & School Tank Projects, to ensure reliable water service to the West Fort Totten area of the reservation. The funding will also be used to replace poor quality private wells in Logan and McIntosh counties.
$9 million for the Fort Peck Reservation/Dry Prairie Rural Water System (Montana). This project will enable the Assiniboine Sioux Tribe to complete the mainline pipeline from Brockton to the Big Muddy to facilitate the delivery of water to Dry Prairie. The funds will also allow for the completion of the mainline from Big Muddy to Culbertson so that a sufficient amount of water from the new treatment plant will be delivered to Dry Prairie.
$5 million for the Lewis and Clark Rural Water System (South Dakota, Iowa and Minnesota). This project will allow for the purchase of water treatment plant tools, vehicles, maintenance equipment, security fencing and installation of approximately three miles of pipeline in Minnesota.
$3.9 million for the Rocky Boy’s/North Central Montana Rural Water System (Montana). This funding will allow the Chippewa Cree Tribe of the Rocky Boy’s Indian Reservation to complete a portion of Segment 3 of the Core pipeline installation for the Rocky Boys Rural Water System. It will also help to provide an interim water system to three areas in Montana as part of the North Central Montana Rural Water System.
$1 million for the Eastern New Mexico Water Supply Project (New Mexico): This funding will support the construction of an intake structure at Ute Reservoir that will supply water to eight municipalities and three counties in eastern New Mexico.
$200,000 for the Jicarilla Apache Rural Water System (New Mexico). This project will assist the Jicarilla Apache Nation in continuing its on-going work related to the Jicarilla-Apache Water System. This rural water grant will allow construction of new water and waste water facilities in the town of Dulce, New Mexico.

This new funding is in addition to $16.1 million that Reclamation had already identified for construction activity for the Mni Wiconi project in South Dakota that will help build water distribution systems to serve several rural communities, including reservation areas of the Oglala Sioux Tribe and the Rosebud Sioux Tribe. The remaining $20 million in Reclamation funding supports projects for aquatic habitat, water conservation and delivery studies, environmental restoration initiatives, and rehabilitation efforts to support sustainable water management.” To view a summary of all the projects in this spending plan, please visit: http://www.usbr.gov/budget/2012/spd.