Western irrigators owe $1.6B for past Reclamation projects

With many Western lawmakers clamoring for expanding reservoirs amid an entrenched drought, a government watchdog issued a report yesterday showing farmers and ranchers still owe on their tab for dams and reservoir projects done decades ago. The Government Accountability Office report says irrigation districts still owe $1.6 billion, roughly a quarter of their tab for the 130 projects built for irrigation by the Bureau of Reclamation. Irrigators have paid off construction costs in 54 of those projects, but they still owed payments on 76 projects as of the end of fiscal 2012. Many of those projects were built during the 1960s. Many Reclamation projects serve multiple purposes, and construction costs are allocated among them. In addition to irrigation, reservoirs provide water for cities, industries and power generators. Irrigation beneficiaries only have to pay back their share of the construction costs, while power generation and municipal and industrial users must pay back those costs with interest. In some cases, irrigators can prove they lack the ability to pay, in which case other users often subsidize irrigation assistance. According to GAO, of $6.4 billion in construction costs that irrigators owed for projects they had a stake in, more than $3 billion was covered by financial assistance from other revenue sources. The report comes as House Republicans are looking to grease the skids for new water storage projects. This afternoon, a House Natural Resources Committee subpanel is holding a hearing on a measure to accelerate environmental reviews of water storage projects. Democratic lawmakers who requested the GAO report pointed to its findings as a reason to oppose the legislation...more