Low water levels at Wahweap Bay at Lake Powell along the Upper Colorado River Basin are pictured on June 9, 2021, at the Utah and Arizona border at Wahweap, Ariz. A freeze on federal funding has halted a number of Colorado-based water conservation projects that affect the Colorado River Basin. (Ross D. Franklin/Associated Press file)
As water levels dwindle in the Colorado River Basin, frozen federal funding is hindering the implementation of statewide water conservation projects.
The Bureau of Reclamation awarded over $150 million of "Bucket 2" funding, which is extended to public entities pursuing ecosystem restoration, to these projects. The funding was made available through the Biden Administration's Inflation Reduction Act, which allocated $4 billion to drought mitigation in 2022.
Funding was awarded to the Bucket 2 projects just three days before President Donald Trump took office earlier this year, and 15 projects have since been stalled after Trump's early efforts to reallocate federal spending.
A remaining $140 million in promised funding has left urgent projects, which aim to improve drought resiliency and restore habitats, unsupported.
Colorado's congressional delegation is calling for the Bureau of Reclamation and the Department of the Interior to release the funds promptly, and signed a letter on Monday addressing the urgency of the situation.
"We ask you to move forward with obligating the remaining $140 million worth of Bucket 2 projects in Colorado - not just for the benefit of our state, but for the resilience of the entire Colorado River Basin," the lawmakers wrote.
Critical drought mitigation projects attempting to address the Colorado River crisis have been left without answers, including one in Southwest Colorado, which was promised $25.6 million.
The grant application was submitted by the Southwestern Water Conservation and Infrastructure Partnership - a collaborative of 37 local entities that aimed to advance regional water projects.
The project's goals are "drought mitigation through aquatic ecosystem restoration, non-native species removal and other water conservation-based activities," said Steve Wolff, general manager of Southwestern Water Conservation District.
It would support ecosystem and habitat restoration across six subbasins in Southwest Colorado.
The final grant contract was not initially expected until late this year or early 2026 because the contracting process with the Bureau of Reclamation can take several months. However, Wolff said SWCD has not received any official communication since the original award letter.
The Trump Administration has announced that only two of the original 17 projects will be awarded the promised funding.
The Orchard Mesa Irrigation District, east of Palisade, will receive $10.5 million to build open canals into pressurized pipelines, improving water delivery efficiency. The second project, in Orchard Mesa and Grand Valley, will receive $1.5 million to enhance water management by installing metering and monitoring systems.
Wolff said he is unsure why these projects were allowed to move forward, while others are not, as they have similar goals.
"We are in a 25-year drought period," he said. "All these projects were aimed at trying to mitigate that drought in one way or another.
If funding is not released, the collaborative might have to turn to private sources of funding.
"All we can do is keep telling our story about the benefits of these projects to the environment and water availability," Wolff said. "Hopefully somebody will listen to that story and release the funding."