House Bill Would Invest Up to $750 Million in Wastewater Recycling Projects

HR 4099, which recently passed a House subcommittee, would create a new pool of money for 17 western states to use for new wastewater recycling capacity.

1 minute read

July 5, 2021, 11:00 AM PDT

By James Brasuell @CasualBrasuell


Colorado River megadrought

TFoxFoto / Shutterstock

House representatives from California, Nevada, and Arizona have introduced H.R. 4099, the Large Scale Water Recycling Project Investment Act, "to create a water recycling grant program for large-scale projects in California and the other sixteen western states," according to a press release from Congresswoman Grace Napolitano (D-CA), which is one of the authors of the bill.

"H.R. 4099 establishes a competitive grant program within the Department of the Interior for large-scale water recycling projects that have a total estimated cost of at least $500 million. The legislation authorizes $750 million for the program through Fiscal Year 2027; projects must be within one of the Bureau of Reclamation's seventeen western states."

In an article for the Las Vegas Review-Journal, Blake Apgar reports that officials from the Southern Nevada Water Authority are supporting the bill for its potential to leave water in Lake Mead. The largest reservoir in the United States continues to break record low levels, triggering unprecedented drought contingency actions, including water supply reductions throughout the Western United States.

Thursday, June 24, 2021 in Congresswoman Grace F Napolitano

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