Cortez Masto Announces Over $26 Million for Large-Scale Water Recycling Project to Combat Drought in The West

Senator Cortez Masto created this program in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to support this project and help keep water in Lake Mead

Washington, D.C. - U.S. Senator Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.) today announced $26.2 million in federal funding to support the construction of a regional large-scale water recycling project in Southern California that will benefit households across Southern Nevada and help keep water in Lake Mead. Once built, the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California's Pure Water Southern California project will partner with the Southern Nevada Water Authority to produce enough water to serve approximately 386,000 households in Southern California and Southern Nevada annually. This is the second distribution of funding for this project, which received an additional $99 million in May.

This funding comes from the Department of the Interior's large-scale water recycling program that Cortez Masto created and passed as part of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law specifically to support this project and combat drought in the West, improve the long-term sustainability of the Colorado River, and keep water in Lake Mead.

"I created the large-scale water recycling program through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to support this cutting-edge initiative to strengthen our water supply and protect critical water resources like Lake Mead," said Senator Cortez Masto. "I'm pleased to see these funds coming to help us combat drought throughout the West, and I'll continue working to ensure Nevada families have access to essential water services for generations to come."

Senator Cortez Masto has been a leader working to support conservation efforts and combat drought. As part of the Great American Outdoors Act, she secured permanent funding for the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF). Cortez Masto fought to deliver $4 billion to combat drought in the states bordering the Colorado River in the Inflation Reduction Act and helped pass the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, which will continue to make a historic amount of funding available for water and wastewater infrastructure improvements across the country over five years.

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