The amount of federal economic-stimulus work continues to grow, with the April 15 announcements that the Interior Dept.’s Bureau of Reclamation has committed $1 billion to projects throughout the West and that the Environmental Protection Agency is dividing $600 million among Superfund projects at 50 sites.
BuRec included about 30 large projects and an unspecified number of smaller ones that it plans to finance through the stimulus, the title of which is the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). California will receive the largest share at $260 million. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar says California’s projects will expand water supplies, repair aging infrastructure and attempt to mitigate drought effects. Salazar says an additional $135 million is available for water reuse and recycling projects in the state.