The U.S. Department of Interior’s Bureau of Reclamation will be holding a webinar on Tuesday, May 14 to answer questions about its recently revised Build America, Buy America (BABA) waiver for the Title XVI-WIIN Water Reuse Grants Program. We encourage all WateReuse members who use or intend to use the Title XVI Program to join the webcast. The final waiver, which the White House Office of Management and Budget approved earlier this year, provides additional time for certain Title XVI projects to comply with the BABA requirements enacted by the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act of 2021. 

WateReuse had advocated to the Department and the White House Office of Management and Budget for a more far-reaching, permanent waiver covering any Title XVI-WIIN project for which a feasibility study was completed prior to May 14, 2022. While we appreciate that the Administration is providing some limited relief from BABA requirements, we have serious concerns about how the expiration of a time-limited waiver will impact projects that began planning and design long before the enactment of the BABA requirements.

Last week, the WateReuse Association and five other water sector associations delivered a letter to the leaders of the House and Senate Interior-Environment Appropriations Subcommittees, urging robust funding for a range of water programs, including the Pilot Program for Alternative Water Source Grants and the Clean Water and Drinking Water State Revolving Fund Programs, among others. WateReuse has been working for months to secure increased investments in key water reuse programs in FY 2025 appropriations legislation. In addition to advocating for funding for programs administered by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), WateReuse has been hard at work protecting funding for critical Bureau of Reclamation programs, including the Title XVI Water Reuse Grants Program. WateReuse supported Congresswoman Grace Napolitano’s (D-CA) effort to gather signatures from Members of Congress on a letter to appropriations leadership, urging a significant increase in funding for the Title XVI program. The House and Senate Appropriations Committees are currently collecting funding requests from Members of Congress before beginning the process of identifying priorities and drafting the FY 2025 funding bills.

Recycled water has been pouring into Orange County’s largest recycled water reservoir this winter and spring, bringing WateReuse member Santa Margarita Water District (SMWD) to a significant milestone last week. Trampas Canyon Reservoir has reached an unprecedented 90% capacity, edging closer to full capacity for the first time since its construction was completed in the summer of 2020.

The Kansas Water Office will hold the 13th annual Governor’s Conference on the Future of Water in Kansas will be Nov. 13-14 in Manhattan, Kansas. This year, water reuse is listed in the state’s call for abstracts, due July 19. Interest in water reuse has steadily grown in Kansas and other midwestern states to meet industrial and agricultural water demands, water quality challenges, and an increase in drought conditions.

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