The funding made available from Hickenlooper’s Inflation Reduction Act will help increase drought resiliency while restoring habitats
WASHINGTON – Today, U.S. Senator John Hickenlooper welcomed the Department of Interior’s (DOI) recent announcement of a new funding opportunity for Upper Colorado River Basin projects to address long-term drought, increase climate resiliency, and help restore wildlife habitats. Under the new funding opportunity, projects that improve community and landscape drought resilience will now be able to apply for the remaining $450 million of Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) funding designated for the Upper Basin.
“This new funding from the Inflation Reduction Act will be a giant step in addressing the continuing mega-drought in the entire Colorado River Basin,” said Hickenlooper. “This will help provide resiliency to farmers, ranchers, and municipalities across the entire basin.”
“As communities across the West continue to face the impacts of prolonged and worsening drought, this funding will enhance watershed health and conservation throughout the Upper Basin,” said Secretary Deb Haaland. “Thanks to historic funding from the Investing in America agenda, the Interior Department is using every resource available to ensure the sustainability of the Colorado River system for the families, farms and economies that rely on it.”
“This phase of funding will deliver crucial environmental benefits, driving long-term conservation efforts and mitigating drought severity in each Upper Basin State,” said Reclamation Commissioner Camille Calimlim Touton. “Reclamation will continue to work collaboratively with stakeholders to leverage this once-in-a-generation investment from the Biden-Harris administration to benefit ecosystem health and water resources.”
The Hickenlooper-backed Inflation Reduction Act allocated $4.6 billion to address drought in the West, which included at least $500 million specifically for the Upper Basin states for water conservation, environmental benefits, and ecosystem and habitat restoration. Last year, the System Conservation Pilot Program (SCPP) was allocated up to $125 million of this funding to enable the Bureau of Reclamation, in partnership with the Upper Colorado River Commission, to implement the System Conservation Pilot Program. Hickenlooper recently introduced bipartisan legislation to reauthorize the SCPP through 2026, after securing a previous reauthorization in 2022. The SCPP is projected to conserve a total of 104,000 acre-feet of water by the end of this September.
Applications for projects under the new category of environmental drought mitigation funding will be accepted through September 27, 2024. Selections are expected by the end of 2024 or early in 2025.
More information on the applications available HERE.
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