In an audacious move to fight the drought that's been choking Southern California, the Biden-Harris Administration has stepped in with a wallet-opening $70 million loan, aiming to put some serious green into water infrastructure. The big bucks, coursed through the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) Water Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act (WIFIA) program, are set to slosh into the coffers of the San Bernardino Valley Municipal Water District, as announced at a recent San Bernardino event.
We're talking about a next-level regional partnership designed to hopefully secure a drought-resistant water future, all while taking care to sustain the ecological heartbeat of the Upper Santa Ana River. This WIFIA program isn't just throwing cash at problems. It's an investment that's leveraged nearly $20 billion, helping to float over $43 billion worth of projects designed to beef up drinking water and stormwater infrastructure. It's purported to rack up over 140,000 jobs.
EPA's water boss, Radhika Fox, was all praises, claiming, "I applaud San Bernardino Valley Municipal Water District for securing this $70 million WIFIA loan to recharge depleted groundwater basins and secure a climate-resilient water future,” as mentioned in the EPA's press release. Fox further emphasized the centrality of upgrading water infrastructure within President Biden's Investing in America Agenda and how the EPA's WIFIA program, coupled with $50 billion from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, is dousing local water woes across the nation.
Over the years, San Bernardino Valley's water resources have run seriously thin, plagued by persistent droughts and the scalding increase of wildfires. But an alliance of five Southern California water agencies, dubbed the Watershed Connect program, is determined to turn the tide. They're betting big on a WIFIA-boosted project called the Santa Ana River Enhanced Recharge Phase 1B, aiming to pump up the groundwater basins and snatch local stormwater runoff up to 80,000 acre-feet and recharge up to 23,000 acre-feet of recycled water sourced from that local aquifer.
"Infrastructure projects of this magnitude require a complex collaboration between technical engineering, environmental stewardship, funding commitments, and regulatory approvals to address our region's water challenges,” informed San Bernardino Valley Municipal Water District Board President Paul Kielhold. He touted the WIFIA loan as a "symbol of progress in the realms of water supply reliability and environmental conservation."
This isn't WIFIA's first rodeo in supporting the Watershed Connect program. The EPA had previously announced an $81 million package for the Yucaipa Valley Water District. All in all, the EPA is all in, with $216 million pledged in WIFIA financing. Thanks to these loans, participating agencies are expected to save up to $47 million while creating more than 1,000 much-needed jobs.
To top off these water-wise investments, the gravy train doesn't end at WIFIA—thanks to President Biden's Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, a historic plunkdown of $50 billion is slated to renew and upgrade the nation's waterworks.
