Water Sector News
A snapshot of clean water stories from publications around the country, updated daily!
Federal “Buy American” rules could be stalling infrastructure projects
On an August day outside Sacaton, the capital of the Gila River Indian Community, a construction crew was digging a trench. Lengths of bright blue pipe, 4 feet in diameter, were piled up on the work site.
“What you see going on right now is the excavator is excavating the trench for the pipe. We’re putting in about 250 feet a day,” said David DeJong, director of the Pima-Maricopa Irrigation Project.
When it’s finished, DeJong said, this nearly 20-mile pipeline will help shore up the reservation’s water supply by bringing in reclaimed wastewater from the nearby Arizona cities of Mesa and Chandler.
“We then can put it into the canal that serves 95% of the community’s agricultural land, giving us great flexibility in how the water will be used and where it will be used,” DeJong said.
The federal government is funding this project with $83 million from the $1 trillion Bipartisan Infrastructure Law that was passed in 2021.