The U.S. Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee has advanced legislation that would extend federal support for desalination projects and research, including grants for large-scale facilities and pilot testing of emerging technologies.

The Desalination Reauthorization Act, introduced by Sens. Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) and John Cornyn (R-Texas), was ordered reported by the committee Oct. 1 with an amendment in the nature of a substitute.

The legislation would extend the Bureau of Reclamation’s authority to provide grants for desalination projects, which is scheduled to expire this year. It also would allow the programmatic approval to cover public-private partnerships and prevent Reclamation from imposing an administrative cap on individual project funding, allowing eligible large facilities to receive the full 25% federal cost share.

The bill would also expand Reclamation’s desalination and water purification research program to support pilot projects intended to bridge the gap between laboratory-scale development and commercial deployment. One example cited by the legislation’s sponsors is OceanWell’s deep-ocean desalination technology, which is being tested with Las Virgenes Municipal Water District in Southern California.

A bipartisan committee amendment would increase the maximum federal grant for desalination research at institutions of higher education from $1 million to $2.5 million. The legislation now advances from committee for consideration by the full Senate.