Senator highlighted her work strengthening Arizonans’ access to reliable water and developing lasting solutions to Arizona’s drought crisis with Colorado River Basin stakeholders
WASHINGTON – Arizona senior Senator Kyrsten Sinema held a meeting with water officials from the City of Tucson and the City of Phoenix to discuss a variety of measures to address water security and reliability needs throughout the state, including PFAS contamination and record drought conditions.
“Arizona’s future depends on strengthening our water security. As we continue fighting historic drought conditions, I remain focused on solving our water challenges by bringing regional leaders together to deliver real solutions,” said Sinema.
Sinema has been actively working with partners in Arizona and across the West to identify solutions helping mitigate the impacts of Western drought and form a long-term, regional plan that ensures all Colorado River Basin States succeed together.
Last month, Sinema announced a historic $728 million for Western drought relief from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs law, bipartisan legislation Sinema wrote and led into law making never-before-seen investments rebuilding America’s crumbling infrastructure, the Inflation Reduction law, legislation Sinema ensured included adequate climate resources to secure Arizona’s water future, and the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2023.
Sinema’s bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs law invests more than $8 billion to strengthen water infrastructure throughout the American West, such as aging infrastructure, water storage, water recycling, drought contingency plans and dam safety – and makes the strongest investment in clean drinking water and wastewater infrastructure in U.S. history, delivering clean water to millions of American families.
Last year, Sinema launched a Water Advisory Council of Arizona water experts from agriculture, tribal, conservation, academic, and business communities across Arizona to advise the Senator on water issues and form a lasting regional plan that relieves ongoing drought conditions.
In last year’s bipartisan government funding bill, Sinema secured increased funding to address PFAS contamination and remediation on military bases and neighboring communities like Tucson. Sinema’s bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs law makes an additional $10 billion investment to address “forever chemicals” contamination like PFAS in Arizona communities.
Last year, thanks to Sinema’s law, Arizona received $109 million from the Environmental Protection Agency to address clean and drinking water systems, update wastewater infrastructure, and help clean-up water contaminants like PFAS in communities across Arizona.
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