\u201cIn 2003, 36 state water managers told the U.S. Government Accountability Office that they anticipated local, regional, or statewide fresh water shortages over the next 10 years under normal conditions. Population growth, changing development patterns, and projected climate change will only compound the challenge. An approach to consider that could be quickly implemented is to give funding priority under applicable federal water infrastructure funding programs to \u2018shovel-ready\u2019 projects.\u201d \u2013 NGWA Executive Director Kevin McCray<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
The NGWA suggests investing in projects that monitor U.S. groundwater, fund maintenance of existing small and community groundwater infrastructure and augment recharge areas that are strained by urban sprawl and increasing agricultural use. The letter also emphasized renewable energy developments like geothermal heat pumps and the importance of modernizing water transmission and distribution lines to improve sustainability and reduce energy consumption throughout the water supply.
\nMcCray makes a good point about prioritizing projects that are ready to go. Just over $67 billion of the allocated $275 billion set aside for loans and grants under the ARRA have been distributed.<\/p>\n
\u201cPrioritizing\u2026 shovel-ready projects not only injects a short-term stimulus into the economy but pays long-term dividends. These projects will improve our nation\u2019s water security, conserve our groundwater resources, bring safe drinking water to economically challenged areas, provide energy savings, and offer employment opportunities for groundwater professionals and others, many of whom are struggling with the economic downturn.\u201d \u2013 NGWA Executive Director Kevin McCray<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Good for the future of both water infrastructure and job creation, look for water projects to get more and more priority in the future.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Federal government recently announced $116.9 million in water and environmental project loans and grants through The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) of 2009. Water infrastructure investment is a critical part of any domestic recovery and reinvestment initiative coming out of the government, and this water investment represents just a fraction of the over […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":4713,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false},"categories":[16],"tags":[102,156,2854,623,782,783,785,898,923,924,2651,1434,1476,2281,2327],"yst_prominent_words":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/bluelivingideas.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/01\/water-pipe.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelivingideas.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4712"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelivingideas.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelivingideas.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelivingideas.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelivingideas.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4712"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bluelivingideas.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4712\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelivingideas.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4713"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelivingideas.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4712"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelivingideas.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4712"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelivingideas.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4712"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelivingideas.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=4712"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}