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The Family
Farm Alliance worked hard in Washington, D.C. last
year to draw attention to the critical issue of aging
water infrastructure in the West. The American
Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 will provide $1
billion to the Department of Interior's Bureau of
Reclamation (Reclamation).
Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar last week
announced that he has established a Recovery Act Task
Force that includes the leadership of Interior
agencies to determine which proposed projects should
be funded. He also announced that he will soon name a
"Stimulus Czar" to oversee Interior's responsible
implementation of the program. The Department of
Interior (DOI) is further developing a web page for
public information on the economic recovery plan and
by March 3rd will begin providing detailed reporting
on these efforts through Recovery.gov, the official
Administration website on the initiative.
Reclamation is working to produce, within the next few
weeks, a list of specific projects and programs that
will be funded by the stimulus package. The agency is
now in the process of compiling a proposed list of
projects that meet criteria spelled out by Congress in
the stimulus package. At the same time, Reclamation
and DOI are developing policy priorities that will
further define the selection of the projects to be
included on the final funding list, which will require
final approval from the White House Office of
Management and Budget (OMB).
Reclamation officials say that the bulk of the
agency's stimulus funding will be devoted to the list
of specific projects and the funding will be obligated
to those projects as quickly as possible. The list
will represent the final funding decisions by the
Administration, say Reclamation officials. It will
not be something to which irrigation districts can
"apply" for funding.
However, Reclamation plans to set aside some stimulus
funding for the Water 2025 Challenge Grant program and
other existing financial assistance programs.
Irrigation districts and other eligible entities will
have to apply for these grant funds through
already-established procedures.
Reclamation officials say that the agency is under a
great deal of pressure to get a stimulus program in
place soon, but they aren't able to pinpoint a date.
Reclamation has named Deputy Commissioner Darryl
Beckman to head its effort and coordinate with DOI.
The DOI stimulus "czar" is expected to be appointed
soon, and he/she will be the liaison to a
government-wide group of agency "czars" that will
report to the White House.
The project
list being compiled by Reclamation is based largely on
project information provided by agency's regional
offices and reflects suggestions and proposals offered
by customers over the past several months, say
Reclamation staff. Agency officials emphasize that
Reclamation headquarters and DOI are relying on its
regional offices to provide the best information on
projects. Reclamation customers who have suggestions
for projects for stimulus funding should get that
information to their regional office as soon as
possible.
Reclamation and DOI are working to devise a set of
policy priorities for project selection, say agency
staff. But the first threshold for selection is
general and reclamation-specific criteria and
priorities laid out by Congress.
In the stimulus legislation and a report that
accompanied the bill, Congress directed Reclamation
and the Corps of Engineers to allocate funding to
projects, programs or activities:
for which
funds can be obligated by the end of FY 2010, will
result in high, immediate employment,
have
little schedule risk, can be executed by contract or
direct hire of temporary labor, and
will
complete either a project phase, a project or
provide a useful service that will not require
additional funding in the future.
Reclamation say that projects must be "shovel-ready,"
meaning projects should already have complete or
nearly-complete designs, specifications and
environmental documentation. They also must be
authorized, meaning that they can be carried out under
existing law or programs without additional
congressional action.
In addition to the general project criteria, the
stimulus legislation spells out some
Reclamation-specific funding priorities, including
rural water projects, CALFED, urban canal
inspections, Central Utah Project, and Title XVI
reclamation and re-use projects. Reclamation is
identifying shovel-ready projects within those
categories.
Beyond those legislated priorities, Reclamation is
assessing the Reclamation-wide and regional RAX
(replacement, addition and exceptional maintenance)
lists for shovel-ready projects and activities to
include on the funding list. Reclamation staff report
that they are looking at the 50-year repayment
language in the stimulus bill in the context of
funding RAX items. The RAX lists review includes
transferred works, but Reclamation is still in the
process of determining how to deal with transferred
works, according to staff.
The bottom line is this: If an irrigation or water
district has an authorized, shovel-ready project that
it wants funded, it should get information on the
project to its local and regional Reclamation offices
now. |
