{"id":27768,"date":"2024-05-08T00:36:01","date_gmt":"2024-05-08T00:36:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/sen-bennet-announces-2-3-million-for-southern-ute-water-infrastructure\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T06:11:25","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T06:11:25","slug":"sen-bennet-announces-2-3-million-for-southern-ute-water-infrastructure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/sen-bennet-announces-2-3-million-for-southern-ute-water-infrastructure\/","title":{"rendered":"Sen. Bennet announces $2.3 million for Southern Ute water infrastructure"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Sen.
Sen. Michael Bennet, Bureau of Reclamation Commissioner Camille Calimlim Touton and Southern Ute Indian Tribe Vice Chair Lorelei Cloud visited the Pine River Indian Irrigation Project on Monday and announced that the tribe would receive a $2.3 million grant to address the project\u2019s crumbling infrastructure. (Courtesy of the Office of Sen. Michael Bennet)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Sen. Michael Bennet and U.S. Bureau of Reclamation Commissioner Camille Calimlim Touton visited the Pine River Indian Irrigation Project on Monday and announced $147.6 million in investments to 42 projects in 10 states facing water reliability challenges. The announcement included a $2.3 million grant to the Southern Ute Indian Tribe to address the PRIIP\u2019s crumbling infrastructure.<\/p>\n

The funding is a part of the Bureau of Reclamation\u2019s Watersmart Drought Resiliency program.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor too long, the United States has failed to live up to its responsibility to adequately fund and maintain the Pine River Indian Irrigation Project,\u201d Bennet said in a news release. \u201cI was grateful to travel to Ignacio (Monday) with Commissioner Touton to welcome this investment to ensure the Southern Ute Indian Tribe can access the water it needs. There is much more work to be done, but this is a great start.\u201d<\/p>\n

The project uses water from Vallecito Reservoir, managed by the Pine River Irrigation District, to irrigate about 12,000 acres of land via 170 miles<\/a> of ditches and raised flumes.<\/p>\n

Tribal officials have called the degradation of the infrastructure a \u201cticking time bomb,\u201d and farmers and rancher dependent on the system <\/a>are routinely shorted the water they need.<\/p>\n

According to a 2024 estimate reported by the Colorado Sun, PRIIP needs $35.3 million in repairs.<\/p>\n

\u201cCommissioner Touton\u2019s visit is a historic moment, one that signifies a new era of collaboration,\u201d SUIT Chairman Melvin J. Baker said in a written statement.<\/p>\n

\"Sen.
Sen. Michael Bennet, Bureau of Reclamation Commissioner Camille Calimlim Touton and Southern Ute Indian Tribe Vice Chair Lorelei Cloud visited the Pine River Indian Irrigation Project on Monday and announced that the tribe would receive a $2.3 million grant to address the project\u2019s crumbling infrastructure. (Courtesy of the Office of Sen. Michael Bennet)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Baker called the $2.3 million grant a \u201cpowerful symbol.\u201d<\/p>\n

PRIIP is run by the Bureau of Indian Affairs. The tribe and the agency have clashed over uncertainty regarding BIA\u2019s responsibility<\/a> to address the maintenance issues.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Southern Ute Indian Tribe is thankful that the Bureau of Reclamation is stepping up to the plate to fulfill the U.S. trust responsibility to the Tribe when the Bureau of Indian Affairs has not been willing to,\u201d Baker said.<\/p>\n

The funding comes from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, Inflation Reduction Act and annual appropriations.<\/p>\n

rschafir@durangherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Department of Interior pledges $147.6 million in total investments to 42 projects in 10 states<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":27769,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[28,629,25,295,294],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-27768","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-headlines","tag-southern-ute-indian-tribe","tag-u-s-sen-michael-bennet","tag-water","tag-water-supply"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27768","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27768"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27768\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":80193,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27768\/revisions\/80193"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27769"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27768"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27768"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27768"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=27768"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}