Reclamation to spend $210 million on drought and fire suppression

The Bureau of Reclamation has announced how they will spend the $210 million provided in the Extending Government Funding and Delivery Emergency Assistance Act (P.L. 117-43).

“Most of the West, and specifically California’s Central Valley, the Klamath Basin in Oregon/California, and the Colorado River Basin, were impacted by this past dry hydrologic year. Recent forecasts show minimal relief for water year 2022,” said Reclamation Commissioner Camille Calimlim Touton. “This funding will help protect those communities and ecosystems in the short term, as we leverage our resources in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to build long-term water resilience in the backdrop of climate change across the entire West.”

Reclamation plans to allocate funds as follows:

• $40 million for conserving 500,000+ acre-feet of water over the next two years to stabilize the decline of Lake Mead. This includes $26 million to the Lower Colorado River Operations Program to continue the implementation of Drought Contingency Plan activities, and $14 million to shore up water firming rights for Tribal communities during times of shortage in the Central Arizona water supply.
• $1.2 million for the Lower Colorado River Operations Program to initiate coordination of post 2026 operational guidelines and studies related to drought resiliency.
• $61.8 million to California’s Central Valley Project to address ongoing drought needs throughout the region.
• $20 million to the WaterSMART Drought Response Program to address drought planning and implementation actions through a competitive selection process that emphasizes mitigation of drought impacts, involvement from multiple stakeholders, and cost-sharing from non-federal sponsors.
• $10 million for the Klamath Project to support drought response and resiliency activities.
• $10 million for drought mitigation activities for Native Americans.
• $22 million for drought-specific projects and activities, such as additional storage facilities for the Mni Wiconi Project (SD) and water conservation improvements for the Yakima River Basin Water Enhancement Project (WA).
• $35 million for contingency funding to address the most pressing and emerging drought- related needs as the FY 2022 water year hydrology unfolds.

The legislation also provided Reclamation with $10 million for fire remediation and suppression emergency assistance activities related to wildfires. Reclamation’s fire remediation and suppression activities include infrastructure repairs, debris removal, fire suppression, and water quality efforts, as well as risk prevention and future fire mitigation efforts such as fuels reduction and cleanup activities.

For more information, visit https://www.usbr.gov/budget/.