(WASHINGTON) -
Interior Secretary Gale Norton today
announced that there has been an
overwhelming response to the 2004 Water 2025
Secretarial Challenge Grant program.
For this
year's $4 million program, the Bureau of
Reclamation received more than 100 proposals
representing over $98 million in water
delivery system improvements across the
West. Of that, the federal share request is
more than $25 million, with the rest made up
by matching funds from non-federal sources
such as irrigation and water districts.
"This
response underscores the significance of
Water 2025 to Western water users and proves
the success of the Challenge Grant concept,"
Norton said. "It demonstrates a widespread
eagerness to work collaboratively to improve
the way water is managed across the West and
address local needs. These conservation
improvements will help prevent crises and
conflicts over our limited water resources
in the region."
The 2004
Secretarial Challenge Grant program sought
proposals from irrigation and water
districts that want to leverage their money
and resources in partnership with
Reclamation to make more efficient use of
existing water supplies through water
conservation, efficiency, and water market
projects.
The program
focuses on achieving the outcomes identified
in Water 2025: Preventing Crises and
Conflict in the West, particularly in water
conservation and efficiency, water markets,
and collaboration, with an emphasis on
projects that can be completed within 24
months and that help stretch water supplies
in the arid West.
The
proposals are being evaluated to ensure they
meet the requirements established for the
Challenge Grant program. Final selections
will be announced later this summer.
President
Bush has requested $20 million for Water
2025 challenge grants in Fiscal Year 2005,
with an additional $1 million for supporting
research by the U.S. Geological Survey.
Norton launched Water 2025 last year.
The
initiative supports realistic, cooperative
approaches and tools that have the most
likelihood of successfully addressing water
supply challenges in basins facing the
greatest potential risk.
The program
calls for concentrating limited federal
financial and technical resources in key
western watersheds and in critical research
and development efforts that will help to
predict, prevent and alleviate water supply
conflicts.
Reclamation
is the largest wholesale water supplier and
the second largest producer of hydroelectric
power in the United States, with operations
and facilities in the 17 Western States. Its
facilities also provide substantial flood
control, recreation, and fish and wildlife
benefits.
Information
on Water 2025 is online at
www.doi.gov/water2025
