New Mexico Democratic Senator Tom Udall introduced a suite of four bills on April 9 intended to promote more efficient use of water supplies in response to the extreme drought conditions in the West.
One bill, the “The Smart Water Resource Management Conservation and Efficiency Act,” (S. 2225) mirrors a proposal AMWA supported last year when Sen. Udall offered it as an amendment to larger legislation. The proposal would establish a “Smart Water Resource Pilot Program” to offer grant funding for water utility demonstration projects that increase water and energy efficiency, promote water and energy conservation, and support the development and use of “advanced automated systems that provide real-time data on energy and water.” Grant recipients would be selected after EPA and the Energy Department considered the novelty, cost effectiveness, and potential energy and cost savings of each proposal.
Other measures offered by Sen. Udall would permanently authorize EPA’s WaterSense program (S. 2226), create a 30 percent consumer tax credit for the purchase of WaterSense-certified products (S. 2227), and offer grants to rural communities for more efficient water systems and efforts to develop alternative supplies (S. 2228).