A $1.2 million federal grant helped unlock a much larger restoration and irrigation project on Colorado’s Rio Grande.
Cassandra McEwen of the Rio Grande Headwaters Restoration Project explains how the Farmers Union diversion came together by stacking several sources of money: Bureau of Reclamation WaterSMART funding, a Colorado Water Plan grant, private foundation support, and cost share from the water users who benefit from the work.
WaterNow helped the project team compete for the federal funding by reviewing the grant application, project scope, and budget, and helping strengthen how the case for investment was presented.
The Farmers Union diversion serves 12 other ditches, making it a critical piece of agricultural infrastructure near Del Norte. The rebuilt structure improves water delivery while also adding fish passage, automated head gates, streambank stabilization, and aquatic habitat.
That combination of benefits broadened the pool of partners with a reason to invest. Federal, state, private, and local dollars each filled a different part of the project budget.
For smaller rural communities, that is an important funding lesson: a strong project still needs the staff capacity, partnerships, and outside expertise to compete for the money that gets it built.
Episode at https://www.waterloop.org/finding-dollars-for-drops-resilience-in-the-rockies/
Resilience In The Rockies is a waterloop series produced in collaboration with WaterNow and made possible in part by a grant from the Colorado Water Conservation Board, with support from PCL Construction, Norris Design, Merrick, and the City of Greeley.
waterloop is a nonprofit news outlet exploring solutions for water sustainability. Visit https://www.waterloop.org/
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