Position #2026-02 – Support for Critical Western Water Infrastructure Programs and Projects
Policy Summary
The West depends on a vast, aging network of dams, reservoirs, diversions, canals, pipelines, levees, wells, pumps, treatment facilities, hydropower acilities, and related works to store, move, treat, and protect water. This infrastructure supports drinking water, irrigation, wastewater treatment, flood control, hydropower, recreation, fish and wildlife habitat, and fulfillment of interstate compacts, tribal settlements, and other legal obligations.
Federal water infrastructure programs and projects are critical to the states. They should be treated as core public health, public safety, and water management infrastructure, not as optional or intermittently funded programs.
WSWC Urges Congress and the Administration to:
1. Fully fund and use the Reclamation Fund for its intended western water purposes. Fully appropriate annual Reclamation Fund receipts for authorized purposes and evaluate converting the Fund to a true revolving trust fund, ensuring receipts are promptly reinvested in western water infrastructure.
2. Provide stable, adequate funding for critical water infrastructure. Support construction, maintenance, repair, rehabilitation, modernization, replacement, and safety improvements for aging federal and non-federal water infrastructure, including Reclamation, USACE, NRCS, state, local, and other essential facilities.
3. Accelerate completion of authorized projects, especially those serving rural and tribal communities. Expedite funding, permitting, and construction for
authorized rural water supply and related projects, including those tied to tribal trust and settlement obligations and protection of public health.
4. Improve federal water infrastructure financing and budgeting. Expand effective financing tools and partnerships, and reform budget scoring that currently
undervalues long-term economic, public health, safety and environmental benefits.
5. Strengthen federal-state partnership in water infrastructure decisions. Respect state water law and regulatory authority, improve coordination and transparency, and ensure strong state involvement in project development, safety oversight, and transfer of federal facilities.
Core Message
In the West, water infrastructure is the physical backbone of water supply reliability, public safety, economic productivity, environmental stewardship, and community resilience. Delayed investment and fragmented federal processes increase risks and costs over time.
What WSWC Is Asking For
1. Fully appropriate Reclamation Fund receipts for authorized western water purposes and evaluate a revolving-fund structure.
2. Provide stable appropriations for water infrastructure construction, maintenance, repair, rehabilitation, modernization, replacement, and safety, including dam safety, levee safety, watershed rehabilitation, and related hazard-mitigation programs.
3. Expedite authorized USDA rural water supply projects and ensure small, rural, and tribal communities can access financial and technical assistance needed to protect public health. (See also WSWC Position No. 496 re Clean and Drinking Water SRFs).
4. Support financing tools, grants, loans, credit enhancements, and partnerships that help close infrastructure funding gaps, and reform budget scoring to better account for the long-term benefits of water infrastructure investments.
5. Streamline permitting, relicensing, and regulatory review while protecting environmental resources and preserving state authority.
6. Improve federal processes for evaluating, reporting, and communicating maintenance, repair, rehabilitation, and safety risks.
7. Require careful, project-by-project evaluation of any federal water and power asset transfers, with strong state involvement and protections for state water law and water rights.
Closing Statement
WSWC supports a strong federal-state partnership to ensure that the West and the Nation have the water infrastructure, financing tools, safety programs, and delivery mechanisms needed to store, move, treat, and protect water reliably and safely. These investments are foundational to public health, public safety, economic security, environmental stewardship, and the long-term resilience of western communities.