US announces $20 million funding for four drought resilience infrastructure projects

A $20 million funding was announced in the US on April 6 for the construction of four small surface and groundwater storage projects in Utah and California.

More specifically, the plan includes three projects to be constructed in the state of California and another one in Utah and the projects announced include:

“Imperial Irrigation District’s Upstream Reservoir Storage Project”: This project is estimated to cost $9.5 million for the construction of an upstream reservoir in California. The reservoir will have a storage capacity of 2,100 acre-feet and a conservation yield of 15,000 acre-feet per year.

“Groundwater Banking Joint Powers Authority’s Phase 1 of the Kern Fan Groundwater Storage Project”: Phase one for this California project is budgeted at $4.7 million and includes the construction of recovery wells, recharge basins and conveyance infrastructure. Its storage capacity will be roughly 28,000 acre-feet and the annual yield is estimated at 2,482 acre-feet.

“Del Puerto Water District’s Orestimba Creek Recharge and Recovery Project”: This is the third and last project planned for California in this funding act. It is a groundwater project which will help store water in an aquifer during wet years for it to be used in dry years. This project has a $1 million budget and an average annual yield of 1,485 acre-feet.

As for Utah, $4.7 million was allocated to the “Washington County Water Conservancy District’s Ash Creek Project”. This will consist of a new pipeline’s construction, which will run from the existing Ash Cree Reservoir to the new Toquer Reservoir. Toquer Reservoir’s capacity will be 3,638 acre-feet with a projected annual yield of 1,759 acre-feet.

It is worth mentioning that the funding was secured from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the Inflation Reduction Act, which combined are the largest climate resilience funding in US history. In numbers, the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law includes $8.3 billion and the Inflation Reduction Act another $4.6 billion, dedicated to drought resilience infrastructure projects.