The goal of this program is to increase the Southwest Basin's capacity to develop projects and leverage federal funding to achieve SWCD strategic priorities, SW BIP goals, and related water conservation needs. The measurable objective is to grow the capacity within SWCD and local partners to operate a water conservation program with annual disbursements of up to $35 million from 2024 to 2028.

Specific tasks are to:

• Apply for a local capacity grant from CWCB to help support a Community Navigator position in SW Colorado to support efforts to implement our water conservation program. The SWCD Board has included required matching funds in its 2024 budget.
• (SWCD was notified in January 2024 that our CWCB grant had been approved.)
•  Position SWCD and other regional partners to apply for a “block grant” or similar programmatic agreement to distribute federal funding to community partners.
• Identify readiness and priority of projects from the SW BIP and other stakeholders to create a “pipeline of projects” to utilize funds most effectively.
• Identify and support watershed-scale, multi-benefit and water conservation projects that require complex regional partner collaboration and larger monetary investment to be achieved.  This will require close coordination with water conservancy districts, irrigation districts, conservation districts and others.
• Coordinate with existing regional project navigators (e.g., Mancos, Upper San Juan) to ensure collaboration and leveraging of resources when possible.

The program will make improvements in the SWCD’s ability to “protect, conserve, use and develop the water resources of the San Juan and Dolores River Basins for the welfare of all the inhabitants”, per SWCD’s statutory purpose.  This means, in part, implementing as many quality SW BIP projects as possible, as quickly as possible.  The SW BIP identifies projects that support the needs of many diverse stakeholders, including agricultural, environmental, recreational, municipal, and industrial, with the goal of doing so in a balanced way that minimizes conflict.  Of the projects cataloged in the 2022 SW BIP, 48 projects were identified as ready to launch as soon as funding is available while another 34 projects are almost ready to launch but need additional development prior to implementation. The SW BIP is not inclusive of all projects that could be eligible for the program. Thus, SWCD will help identify and fund additional multipurpose projects that address the goals and needs of multiple stakeholders in the SWCD.

Doing so will also fulfill the second part of SWCD’s statutory purpose, which is to “safeguard for Colorado all waters of the basin to which the state is entitled.”  By investing in these SW BIP projects, this shows commitment, future planning, and demonstrated cooperation between all water users to protect, conserve, and wisely use this resource.  This could help protect Colorado’s water interests from out-of-state claims, water rights calls, or federal mandates, because there is hard evidence of programmatic, collaborative work to improve water conservation and management.

In addition to expanding the funds available for projects, the expanded grant program can address these other barriers to project implementation:

• The lack of funding for staff capacity on the part of project proponents. Specifically, there is often limited capacity for project and organizational capacity specific to administration and planning during the development and funding coordination phases of a project (River Network, 2023, Scaling Up Capacity for Multi-Benefit Projects in Colorado). Incorporating resources for these activities (e.g., funding and/or technical support) into grants, as allowable by the federal funding sources, can dramatically increase a project’s chances for success.
• Need for coordination among stakeholders to bundle projects, collaborate, and leverage resources to create program proposals that are large enough in scope to be competitive for federal funding programs (TRCP, 2022 Challenges in Accessing and Utilizing Federal Funding to Support Cross-Boundary Watershed Scale Restoration). Implementing a community navigator position to assist with this type of collaboration could prove beneficial in terms of garnering more funding and realizing efficiencies and learning between projects.