Federal funding for water conservation projects in Utah has been held up for over a year, but some of that money is finally flowing to eastern Utah.

The Bureau of Reclamation plans to release about $35 million to Utah from the Inflation Reduction Act for drought mitigation projects in the Colorado River Basin, said Amy Haas, director of the Colorado River Authority of Utah.

That’s just a portion of the $90 million that the Biden administration awarded to Utah for 11 projects, ranging from wetland restoration near Moab to removal of invasive Russian olive trees along the Green River. Shortly after the funds were awarded in early January 2025, though, President Donald Trump froze spending from the IRA.

“We never really thought that we would see this funding again,” Haas said. “We kind of assumed that it would either be repurposed or swept back or that it would not be made available for its original purpose.”

Reclamation notified Haas last week that four of the eleven projects would receive funding.

“It’s fantastic that we’re seeing these projects, even a fraction of the approved projects, actually funded within the state,” Haas said.

All of the $35 million will go to Utah’s Division of Wildlife Resources, Haas said.

The division said in an email that Reclamation had not yet communicated with them about exact award amounts or timing for distribution of funds, though. Reclamation did not respond to The Tribune’s questions about the funding by the time of publication.

“We’re super thankful that the funding was awarded, especially with the current state of the river system and in a year with extremely low snowpack,” said Tommy DeHart, southeast Utah project manager with Trout Unlimited, which will be involved in the projects receiving funding.

The projects “represent some real, meaningful impact for local communities and economies,” DeHart said.

Here’s what’s receiving funding

According to Reclamation’s report to Haas, the agency will allocate about $28.1 million for drought mitigation efforts in the lower Price River. This includes constructing a new dam and reservoir to replace the existing Olsen Reservoir, which Haas said will improve water quality and stream flow in an area that has become particularly dry.

“This new reservoir would allow water to be released into the Price River by way of the Marsing Wash to maintain fish habitat in the lower Price River during really dry periods,” Haas said.

The project will also replace irrigation diversions “to enable strategic water releases” that will benefit threatened and endangered fish, according to the division.

Roughly $2.6 million dollars will fund a drought resiliency and restoration project along Huntington Creek, which runs into the San Rafael River. The project will install “low-tech restoration structures,” the division said, to improve fish habitat for native species, including the Colorado River cutthroat trout.

The creek was affected by the Seeley Fire in 2012 and has continued to experience poor water quality after a series of flash floods, DeHart said.

Reclamation will also obligate around $2.75 million for efforts to reduce sediment erosion along tributaries to Scofield Reservoir to improve habitat for fish and wildlife and improve downstream water quality.

The reservoir is considered an impaired water body by the Utah Division of Water Quality because of high phosphorus levels from erosion upstream, DeHart said. That can lead to harmful algae blooms in the reservoir.

“In these quite extreme droughts we’re currently facing, we really see water quality as being of most importance,” DeHart said.

Improvements to Huntington Creek and tributaries to Scofield Reservoir may also improve grazing conditions in nearby upland meadows, DeHart added.

Lastly, around $1.4 million will go towards a voluntary lease program with water users in the Price River Basin aimed at keeping more water in the river.

How water leasing could give Utah ‘credit’

Haas said she hopes there will be some “synergy” between the Price River water leasing program and the Colorado River Authority of Utah’s Demand Management Pilot Program, which supports water conservation efforts in the state’s Colorado River watershed.

Utah and the other Upper Basin states — Colorado, New Mexico and Wyoming — had an agreement with the Bureau of Reclamation that allowed states to store and account for up to 500,000 acre feet of conserved water in Lake Powell and other Colorado River reservoirs such as Flaming Gorge. That agreement expired at the end of last year, but Haas said elements “survive expiration,” including states’ ability to store conserved water “in perpetuity.”

“We are hopeful that it will be renewed,” Haas continued, “and rather than simply having Reclamation and the states account for that water getting down to Powell, we are going to insist that we actually get credit for that water.”

That “credit” could help Utah and its neighbors in the Upper Basin ensure it meets its downstream obligations in the Colorado River compact during dry years. In the event of litigation, it could also reduce the amount of water Utah may have to cut in a curtailment scenario, Haas said.

This article is published through the Colorado River Collaborative, a solutions journalism initiative supported by the Janet Quinney Lawson Institute for Land, Water, and Air at Utah State University. See all of our stories about how Utahns are impacted by the Colorado River at greatsaltlakenews.org/coloradoriver.