The Department of the Interior today announced three funding opportunities available to help Western communities create or expand clean, new water sources.
The selected projects, which include desalination, and water reclamation and reuse projects, will be funded through investments in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and, when enacted, fiscal year 2022 appropriations.
These funds aim to provide assistance to drought-impacted communities as the federal government collaborates with states, Tribes, and other water users to develop longer-term solutions to climate change.
Reclamation has increased the total amount of funding for any one project to $30 million. In contrast, the maximum amount of funding for a Title XVI project authorized by Congress is set by statute and is typically $20 million.
Applying for Funding
All three funding opportunities invite sponsors of eligible projects to apply for up to 25 percent of the costs of planning, design, and construction scheduled for the next three years.
Two of the funding opportunities released today are for Title XVI projects, which support water recycling and reuse projects. These opportunities include one opportunity for projects authorized by Congress in standalone legislation, and one opportunity open to projects eligible under the Water Infrastructure Improvements for the Nation (WIIN) Act.
Lists of Title XVI Water Reclamation and Reuse projects authorized by Congress or eligible under the WIIN Act are available online on Reclamation's WaterSMART webpage. The funding opportunity numbers for these are R22AS00116 and R22AS00115, respectively.
The third funding opportunity is a Desalination Construction Projects funding opportunity for ocean and brackish water desalination projects. The projects must be in the Western United States or U.S. territories and have submitted a feasibility study to Reclamation for review. The funding opportunity number for this is R22AS00117.
Information on these funding opportunities is available at www.grants.gov. Applications for each funding opportunity are due at 4 p.m. MDT on March 15.
"Water reuse and desalination are important tools to building resiliency throughout the West, and these funding opportunities support water providers in developing new and clean sources of water to improve their water supply reliability for their communities," said Reclamation Commissioner Camille Calimlim Touton. "Through our traditional sources and now funding from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, we can bring more resources to support Western communities."
The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law contains $1 billion over five years for water reclamation and reuse projects, including $550 million for the Title XVI Water Reclamation and Reuse Program and $250 million for water desalination projects.
