The Arkansas Valley Conduit, a water pipeline project that has been slow to start, will get $60 million from the latest round of federal funding from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.
The U.S. Department of the Interior on Monday announced a total of $210 million in funding, earmarked for projects that seek to deliver clean, reliable drinking water to communities across the West through water storage and conveyance projects. The money is part of the $1.05 billion in Water Storage, Groundwater Storage and Conveyance Projects provided by the infrastructure law.
The new money for Arkansas Valley Conduit means the project could be completed seven years earlier than initially estimated.
The conduit, a 130-mile pipeline project with “spurs,” could add another 97 miles and provide water to as many as 40 communities and 50,000 people east of Pueblo. The conduit will deliver filtered water ready for treatment from Pueblo Reservoir.
The conduit will solve one of the biggest problems in the Lower Arkansas Valley: lack of clean drinking water.
Bill Long, president of the Southeastern Water Conservancy District (SWCD), told Colorado Politics in 2020 that the area is under enforcement orders from the state to clean up its water quality.
Residents of the Lower Arkansas get their water from wells, but the water has high levels of salt, selenium and even radioactive materials. Two dozen water systems in the Lower Arkansas are or have been in violation of the Clean Water Act in recent years, with high levels of radium, uranium and, in a few instances, “gross alpha radiation.” Radium levels in some water systems in the eastern Lower Arkansas are 63 times higher than levels at the Pueblo Reservoir, and the amount of uranium is up to 12 times higher.
The project’s total cost was estimated in 2020 at $500 million. The federal government is expected to contribute 65% of the cost, with 35% from SWCD, which will repay the federal government for its share over a period of 50 years.
The project got $28 million in federal dollars to get it off the ground in 2020. That money was used for final design and to begin construction. Gov. Jared Polis also signed legislation in 2020 for $90 million in loans and $10 million in state grants. Groundbreaking for the project took place in October 2020. The bureau announced on Sept. 29 that it had issued the first contract for construction, which is expected to begin in a few months, according to SWCD.
The conduit, which Bureau of Reclamation will operate, has been on the drawing board since 1962, when Congress approved it as part of the Fryingpan-Arkansas Project in 1962. But it was never built largely because of the inability of participants to repay construction costs.
The project, under its management plan, is expected to reach Lamar by 2035, although an expedited process — taking into account the federal infrastructure funding announced Monday — could move the completion date to as soon as 2028, according to SWCD’s Chris Woodka.
“Sixty years ago, President Kennedy came to Pueblo and promised to build the Arkansas Valley Conduit to deliver clean drinking water to families in Southeastern Colorado. Since I’ve been in the Senate, I’ve fought to ensure the federal government keeps its word to Colorado and finishes this vital infrastructure project,” said U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet, who has been working on funding for the project since 2009. “One of the first bills I passed helped to jumpstart and fund construction on the Arkansas Valley Conduit, and with this announcement, we’ve delivered more than $140 million to help complete construction and deliver on this decades-old promise.”
“Thanks to the Bipartisan Infrastructure Act, long-stalled projects like the Ark Valley Conduit are moving forward. Today, we’re bringing this 60 year project over the finish line,” added U.S. Sen. John Hickenlooper.
