Denver — Today, Colorado U.S. Senators Michael Bennet and John Hickenlooper joined Department of the Interior Deputy Assistant Secretary for Water and Science Gary Gold, Bureau of Reclamation (BOR) Commissioner Camille Calimlim Touton, and Director of the Colorado Water Conservation Board Becky Mitchell for a groundbreaking ceremony for the Arkansas Valley Conduit (AVC), a major water infrastructure project receiving $60 million from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. Bennet and Hickenlooper celebrated the initial announcement of this funding with local leaders in October.
“Sixty years after President Kennedy came to Pueblo and promised to build the Arkansas Valley Conduit, we are one step closer to delivering safe, clean water to 39 communities and 50,000 Coloradans along the Arkansas River. This is what it means to invest in America again,” said Bennet. “Today’s groundbreaking is a testament to the generations of people in southeast Colorado who continue to fight for clean drinking water.”
“Our Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill is finally getting this project across the finish line,” said Hickenlooper. “We passed that bill to update our infrastructure in cities, rural areas and everywhere in between. Today we’re delivering.”
The AVC is a planned 130-mile water-delivery system from the Pueblo Dam to communities throughout the Arkansas River Valley in Southeast Colorado. This funding will expedite the construction timeline for the Conduit and allow for federal drinking water standards to be met more quickly by local water providers. The Conduit is the final phase of the Fryingpan-Arkansas Project, which Congress authorized in 1962.
Bennet and Hickenlooper have consistently advocated for increased funding for the AVC through annual appropriations and the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. In January, the senators urged BOR to consider allocating additional funding from the 2023 federal budget or the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law for the AVC. In July 2022, the senators urged the Office of Management and Budget and BOR to allocate funds from the infrastructure law for the AVC. Bennet and Hickenlooper will continue working in Washington to ensure Colorado has the resources needed to complete this vital project for the region.