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The Water Resources Coalition (WRC), an organization founded last year by ASCE and the Associated General Contractors of America, urged Congress to provide $1 billion over the next four years to finance needed repairs to western water resources projects operated by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation.

In a statement http://www.waterresourcescoalition.org/index.html  submitted to the Water and Power subcommittee of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, the WRC said the Bureau's infrastructure faces three major challenges: lack of funding provided to the agency under recent federal budgets; a small, but measurable, decline of the reliability of the water infrastructure facilities and systems under the Bureau’s control; and the demonstrated need for more money to address the repair of aging facilities.

Reclamation operates and maintains 2,122 water and power structures in 17 states of the West. Among these facilities are 472 dams, 348 reservoirs, 58 power plants, and numerous other water delivery facilities. The agency faces approximately $3 billion worth of rehabilitation needs for its aging infrastructure over the next 20 years.