This story was produced as part of the Colorado Capitol News Alliance. It first appeared at cpr.org.
The federal government belatedly released $47 million this week to fund four Colorado projects aimed at mitigating the impacts of an unprecedented drought and a parched Colorado River.
The funds — promised more than a year ago — will pay for stream restoration, wetland reconstruction and a variety of other projects throughout the state. It comes as most of the state is facing perilously dry conditions, and the outlook for the entire Colorado River Basin remains dire.
“The funding released will support the Pine River Indian Irrigation Project, drought-resilient infrastructure across the Southwest, and endangered species recovery efforts, which are all essential to Colorado’s future,” said U.S. Senator Michael Bennet in a joint statement with Senator John Hickenlooper.
In January 2025, at the tail end of President Biden’s administration, the Bureau of Reclamation awarded more than $150 million to support 17 projects in Colorado that would help the state cope with drought.
That money included a major infusion for the Shoshone water rights purchase, a priority for Western Slope water users. Up to $40 million in federal dollars would help the Colorado River District purchase two water rights from Xcel Energy to keep water flowing for conservation purposes, according to the District.
The drought funding comes from the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), a sprawling multi-billion dollar climate law that immediately drew the ire of the Trump administration. On Jan. 20, 2025, President Trump signed an executive order freezing IRA money and other Biden-era spending, pending a review by federal agencies.
That froze $25.6 million awarded to the Southwestern Water Conservation District, based in Durango, for drought-related work. General manager Steve Wolff said that Reclamation did not contact him about his grant until this week, when his funding was released, roughly 16 months since the money was first awarded.
“This year's hydrology just highlights the need for these type[s] of projects…to help mitigate these droughts, because we're gonna see them in the future,” he said.
Wolff said he was thankful the grant was now moving ahead, and that it would help with efforts to remove invasive species, address stream erosion and help improve irrigation diversions in southwest Colorado.
It may still take months to receive the funding, which will support 17 projects in Wolff’s district.
The Trump administration’s freeze triggered a bevy of lawsuits that unlocked some IRA funding, while some agencies released funds after reviewing projects. But that did not occur for the majority of projects in Colorado funded by Reclamation’s drought mitigation program.
In August 2025, Colorado’s entire bipartisan congressional delegation sent a letter pleading with the federal government to release $140 million for outstanding drought-related projects.
The Bureau of Reclamation did not directly answer questions about why it suddenly released the funds this week. But during a hearing last month, Sen. Hickenlooper questioned Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, who oversees Reclamation, about why the funding remained frozen.
In a statement, a Reclamation spokesperson said the projects “were individually assessed to ensure period of performance, criticality and other criteria.”
But the newly-released $47 million is just a portion of the funding promised to the state. More than $90 million in federal drought preparedness funding for Colorado remains outstanding, according to senators Hickenlooper and Bennet, with a major portion of that earmarked for the Shoshone purchase.
The Reclamation spokesperson said they were still reviewing the Shoshone funding.
