On February 4, U.S. Senator Alex Padilla (D-CA) introduced a pair of bills to help address growing water supply challenges in California and the American West. As severe droughts, warming temperatures, limitations on groundwater pumping, and outdated infrastructure compound California’s water scarcity issues, the MORE WATER Act and GROW SMART Act would fund water recycling projects, water conveyance, habitat restoration, and innovative water-saving projects.
The MORE WATER Act focuses on expanding federal support for water recycling, conveyance, and ecosystem restoration projects to improve long-term water supply reliability. Specifically, the bill would:
- Reauthorize Bureau of Reclamation water recycling programs, providing federal grants of up to 25 percent of project costs and increasing the per-project funding cap to $50 million.
- Support both large-scale and smaller recycling projects, including projects capable of generating significant new water supplies for urban and agricultural use.
- Reauthorize funding for in-stream and floodplain habitat restoration benefiting salmon and other fish species.
- Establish a new multi-benefit conveyance program to restore the California Aqueduct and other major canals, with federal grants covering up to 30 percent of restoration costs.
- Provide additional grants of up to 20 percent for projects delivering environmental or safe drinking water benefits, particularly for low-income communities.
- Streamline congressional approvals for eligible projects through programmatic authorizations, while maintaining existing environmental review requirements.
Resources providing additional information are available on Senator Padilla’s website, including:
- a one-page outline of the MORE WATER Act.
- a one-page summary of the benefits for California.
- a section-by-section breakdown of the MORE WATER Act.
- an explanation of how the multi-benefit conveyance program in the MORE WATER Act works.
The GROW SMART Act aims to improve agricultural drought resilience by supporting voluntary partnerships and testing innovative water-saving approaches. Specifically, the bill would:
- Authorize $5 million annually for seven years for the Bureau of Reclamation to fund voluntary agricultural partnerships and pilot water-saving projects.
- Support partnerships between farmers and municipal, industrial, or commercial entities, with non-federal partners covering project cost shares.
- Fund small-scale demonstration projects allowing farmers to test water-saving practices before broader adoption.
- Support innovative approaches such as low-water-use crops, advanced irrigation strategies, and other practices that keep farmland in production and support local employment.
- Allow funding for agricultural, state, and Tribal water-saving projects outside formal partnerships.
- Prioritize cost-effective agricultural water conservation approaches shown to reduce water use at relatively low cost.
A discussion of the goals and purposes of the GROW SMART Act is available here, and a section-by-section breakdown of the Act is available here.
For additional information, contact RCRC Policy Advocate, Eric Will.