Input Stories

The Department of the Interior is pumping $889 million into water infrastructure across Western states (Construction Dive).

• Made possible by H.R. 1—legislation the NAM helped drive—this funding will deliver upgrades to Bureau of Reclamation projects in California, Idaho, North Dakota, South Dakota, Utah and Wyoming.

The details: Followed by years of sustained advocacy by the NAM, the government is now investing in long-overdue improvements to aging infrastructure.

• California, the major beneficiary of this investment, “will receive $540 million of the total funding to support improvements to major water conveyance systems and storage projects ….”
• “[T]he Delta-Mendota Canal, a 117-mile-long aqueduct in California’s Central Valley, will receive $235 million,” while additional funding will go to other canals and water projects in the state.

In other states: North Dakota will get $100 million for its Eastern North Dakota Alternate Water Supply project.

• Utah will receive the same amount to “replace the 110-year-old Highline Canal with an enclosed pipeline to improve safety and water delivery efficiency,” while Wyoming will receive another $100 million to repair the Fort Laramie Tunnels.
• Smaller amounts will go to other projects in North Dakota, South Dakota and Idaho.

The word from Washington: H.R. 1 “is delivering major new investments in Western water infrastructure,” said Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum in a statement. “These investments strengthen our nation’s water security, modernize aging infrastructure and support the farmers, communities and industries that depend on reliable water supplies.”

The NAM says: “The modernization of America’s decaying infrastructure is one of manufacturers’ highest priorities, as the NAM’s recently launched, national ‘ Building to Win’ campaign makes clear to policymakers,” said NAM Vice President of Domestic Policy Chris Phalen.

• “Manufacturers need roads and bridges, ports and waterways, airports and runways, water systems and energy infrastructure that work every day, without delay.”
• “The NAM welcomes the deployment of these funds—made possible thanks to legislation that the NAM championed—and urges policymakers to pass other bills, like surface transportation reauthorization, that will also renew America’s infrastructure system.”