Feds Issue Western Water Grants

The U.S. Department of the Interior has approved $4.5 million in Water 2025 Challenge grants to benefit over a dozen western states. In New Mexico, irrigation canal gates will be improved, among other goals. Photo Courtesy of the U.S. Department of the Interior.

In New Mexico, the Navajo Agricultural Products Industry will receive $300,000.

NAPI plans to use the money to help build a canal gate operating system to cut down on annual canal spills and create an irrigation scheduling program to reduce over irrigation.

More than a dozen projects in other states also will benefit from the grants.

The Interior Department says groundbreaking on the projects is expected by the end of September and the work must be completed within two years.

Administered by the Bureau of Reclamation, the Water 2025 Challenge Grant Program provides matching funds to irrigation and water districts, Western states, Tribes, and other local entities to develop innovative on-the-ground solutions to water supply problems.

Source: KDBC 4 News/U.S. Department of the Interior