The Department of Interior has just announced that it is funding nearly a dozen separate water infrastructure projects in Arizona, Colorado, and Texas.
The funding is part of a total $105 million in new investments for water conservation and efficiency projects across the country.
In announcing the funding, Acting Deputy Secretary Laura Daniel-Davis remarked: “Access to clean, reliable water is essential for feeding families, growing crops, sustaining wildlife, and powering agricultural businesses.”
In Arizona exactly $500,000 is going for an effort in the Town of Marana that will see the replacement of just over 2,500 residential water meters. Those mechanisms will instead be supplanted by what are described as “advanced metering infrastructure capabilities with cellular endpoints.”
It is thought that the new technology will save upwards of 93 acre-feet of water in Marana that is currently lost to overuse and leaks.
In Colorado, just under $2 million will fund the building of automatic turnouts and intake structures in the Bostwick Park Conservancy District in Montrose. The Town of Cheraw is in line for nearly $790,000 in funding to install 286 smart meters, while the High Desert Conservation District in Cortex is getting nearly $1.7 million for a new piping project.
A final Colorado project is seeing the Interior Department committing $1.2 million for a canal automation and efficiency project in Larimer County near the Colorado/Wyoming border.
Of the six funded projects for Texas, two are in El Paso: the upgrading of 360 municipal meters in the El Paso County Water Control and Improvement District, and nearly $4.9 million heading to the El Paso Water Utilities Public Service Board for the building of a 4.35-megawatt solar array.
By Garry Boulard
