Southern Ute plans for $19M upgrade to crumbling water system get caught in Trump funding freeze

On Jan. 17, former President Joe Biden’s last day in office, the Southern Ute Indian Tribe thought it would have at least $19 million in federal funding to improve a deteriorating irrigation system in southwestern Colorado. 

Then the controversial national funding freeze by President Donald Trump shoved the tribe’s plans into limbo.

The federally managed Pine River Indian Irrigation Project has a decadeslong backlog of maintenance work that could cost at least $34.1 million to address, according to the Bureau of Indian Affairs. The Southern Ute Indian Tribe was awarded several federal grants to help improve the system before Trump announced the freeze on Jan. 20, his first day in office. 

“The tribe currently has four outstanding applications for federal funding which are being impacted by the freeze,” the tribe said in a written statement in late February.

This Fresh Water News story is a collaboration between The Colorado Sun and Water Education Colorado. It also appears at wateredco.org/fresh-water-news.

Other funding sources for the Pine River project, like user fees for operations and maintenance, are not paused, according to the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

The Trump administration’s funding freeze gives federal agencies time to make sure funded projects are aligned with the administration’s policy goals on issues like climate change, and diversity, equity and inclusion programs.

But the freeze quickly caused widespread confusion as people tried to understand impacts to everything from schools to law enforcement and health care systems. 

Within days, states, including Colorado, sued to block the freeze, saying it unconstitutionally usurped Congress’ power of the purse, and the Trump administration rescinded a memo freezing spending. As of Thursday, two federal judges ruled to block the freeze.

The outcome is still unclear for local grant recipients, like those who received funding for 17 environmental projects three days before the freeze was announced. 

The Southern Ute Indian Tribe was one of those recipients. On Jan. 17, It was awarded up to $16.7 million for its Pine River Environment Drought Mitigation Project, which would help improve fish passage and deteriorating infrastructure tied to the Pine River project.

Officials are still awaiting information about the grant, but it hopes the money will show up as promised, the tribe’s statement said.

Tribal officials are also uncertain about other grants awarded during the Biden administration. 

The Bureau of Reclamation in May 2024 awarded a $2.3 million WaterSMART grant to improve infrastructure so the tribe can get its full share of water delivered to the Pine River Indian Irrigation Project during dry years. But the grant is tied to Biden-era policies that the Trump administration has targeted, called the Inflation Reduction Act, or IRA, and the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, or BIL.

“Currently we are unsure of the status of the funding since it was funded through BIL/IRA funding,” the tribe’s statement said.

Lawmakers voice support for funding

The Pine River project and others like it have been understaffed and underfunded for decades, according to the Bureau of Indian Affairs. 

The Pine River project is one of 16 similar irrigation systems in the West, called Indian Irrigation Projects, run by the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Parts of the projects are in complete disrepair, and they’ve been underfunded for so long that it would cost about $2.36 billion to completely fix them, according to the bureau’s estimate in June 2024.

State and federal lawmakers have stepped in to support funding for the federal irrigation projects, but the impact of their efforts is still to be determined.

In March 2024, Colorado lawmakers called on Congress to put more money into the Indian Irrigation Fund, part of the Water Improvements for the Nation Act of 2016, to help repair the 16 federal irrigation systems.

Congress can put up to $35 million each year to the fund, but so far, the full amount has never been allocated, according to the Southern Ute Indian Tribe.

This year’s total for the fund is still up for debate. Congress has not finalized its budget for fiscal year 2025, which started in October. Lawmakers have until the end of the day Friday to fund the government, but it’s still unclear whether Republicans will gain enough support to pass a short-term funding bill. 

It’s frustrating that the $35 million fund has never been fully allocated, U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet’s office said in a prepared statement. 

Sens. Bennet and John Hickenlooper, both Democrats, expressed support for sending funding to the Pine River project. U.S. Rep. Jeff Hurd, a Grand Junction Republican whose Congressional district includes the Pine River system, did not respond with a comment in time for publication.

“The federal government has shamefully failed to honor its trust commitments to tribes by the longstanding shortfall in funding for all Indian Irrigation Projects like the Pine River project on the Southern Ute Reservation,” Bennet’s statement said.

Ongoing challenges for the Pine River project

About 400 farmers and ranchers on the Southern Ute Reservation and in La Plata County depend on the Pine River irrigation system. When it breaks down, their agricultural businesses suffer.

But tackling the project’s maintenance backlog is an uphill battle.

For the Pine River system, the federal cost estimate of $34.1 million for the project’s maintenance backlog might be too low. The Southern Ute Indian Tribe’s estimates were higher, ranging from $64 million to $126 million to modernize or replace the aging infrastructure, which includes eroded ditches, cracked stilts supporting pipes, and collapsed or abandoned stretches of infrastructure. 

The Pine River project and others like it have been understaffed and underfunded for decades, according to the Bureau of Indian Affairs. The Pine River project is one of 16 similar irrigation systems in the West, called Indian Irrigation Projects, run by the bureau. Parts of the projects are in complete disrepair, and they’ve been chronically underfunded for so long that it would cost about $2.36 billion to completely fix them, the bureau estimated in June.

To complicate matters further, the Southern Ute Indian Tribe and the Bureau of Indian Affairs also disagree over the bureau’s responsibility to the Pine River project.

Federal staffing is another ongoing issue. There is one person at the bureau’s local office tasked with covering the 12,000-acre system. The office would have four people if it were fully staffed.

In response, the Southern Ute Indian Tribe has committed both staff time and money to help manage the system, spending about $10 million on improvements since 2018, according to its statement.

“For far too long the BIA has relied on a ‘crisis-style’ management of the PRIIP, resulting in a lack of planning and preventative maintenance,” the tribe’s statement said. “Issues throughout the 2024 irrigation season necessitated turning off irrigation water to conduct repairs to ditches, headgates and structures.”

The Bureau of Indian Affairs acknowledged the funding and personnel shortages in a written statement to The Colorado Sun. 

“Despite these challenges, BIA delivers water to its customers every summer,” the agency said.