Earlier this month, US Secretary of the Interior David L. Bernhardt was in Pueblo, CO, to officially mark the groundbreaking for the construction of the Arkansas Valley Conduit (AVC) Project at Pueblo Dam. When completed, the project will convey clean water from Pueblo Reservoir via 230 miles of pipelines to 40 communities and a projected future population of 50,000 people in southeastern Colorado.
President John F. Kennedy signed the Fryingpan-Arkansas Project Act in 1962, authorizing construction of the AVC, but it was not previously constructed because the rural communities could not afford the full cost of the project. Reclamation worked with project sponsors to reduce costs and the need for federal appropriations, identifying additional funding revenues through both federal and state loans and grants. The total cost of the AVC is estimated to be between $564 million and $610 million (USD) and 35 percent of the costs will be repaid by project beneficiaries over a period of up to 50 years.
When completed, AVC will deliver as much as 7,500 acre-feet of water from Pueblo Reservoir annually through a pipeline running from Pueblo to Lamar and Eads. Water will flow by gravity, with the exception of one pumping station in Eads.
Western water supply reliability and infrastructure investment has been a priority for President Trump and his administration. In October of 2018, with the signing of the Presidential Memorandum on Promoting the Reliable Supply and Delivery of Water in the West the Departments of the Interior, Commerce, Energy and Army focused on addressing “fragmented regulation of water infrastructure” and “to minimize unnecessary regulatory burdens and foster more efficient decision-making” to modernize water projects to better meet demand.
In February, President Trump signed the Presidential Memorandum on Developing and Delivering More Water Supplies in California implementing that it “is the policy of the United States to modernize our Federal western water infrastructure to deliver water and power in an efficient, cost-effective way.” Reclamation is proving that thorough reviews can be completed, timelines can be reasonably set and projects like the AVC can be built.
Matching regulatory consistency with financial commitment, Reclamation has invested $28 million toward construction of AVC in 2020 alone, compared with a mere $24.7 million in total federal investment over the course of the past 60 years. This investment has been crucial to developing local, state and regional financing for project sponsors.
More information about the project can be found on the Bureau of Reclamation’s website.