Bullhead City – Public Utilities Director Mark Clark said he and Bullhead City Administrator Toby Cotter are “fully committed” to applying for a $300 million grant to the U.S. Department of the Interior. While the demands may be high, both administrators expressed a high level of confidence that the Colorado River community has a chance of success.
At a meeting on July 5, city councilors expressed their support for the grant, formally authorizing the city’s application to the Reclamation Bureau.
Clark said the Biden administration has set aside a $4.2 billion pool for grant programs set up to encourage innovation to reduce water use. He then told city councilors how the city would use the money and how the profits would increase Bullhead City’s chances of winning a subsidy.
“This will allow us to build two surface water treatment plants in the city, one in the north and one in the south, splitting the city in half,” Clark said. “This will allow us to pump water directly from the Colorado River, transport it to our surface treatment facility, and supply it to customers throughout our community.”
Clark said each plant can produce up to 6 million gallons of water each day, with the final treated product suitable for drinking and other household uses. Customers will enjoy savings by eliminating water softeners in their homes, and the city will realize further savings by eliminating inefficient, low-yielding wells that are costly to operate and maintain.
“We are asking the Reclamation Department for a lot of money to do this for this community, and they want a return, and what they want is water conservation,” Clark said. .
Clark said Bullhead’s success in water conservation is immediately apparent. He said the community consumed 10,915 acre-feet of water in 2005 when the population was 37,225, but only 10,835 acres in 2022 when the population is 42,601. It was said to be feet.
“In fact, we used less water last year than we did 17 years ago. It shows how good stewards we are. decreased,” Clark said. “All of this has to do with our water conservation plans that have saved over 2,500 acre feet of water, so I think we have a very good story to tell the Reclamation Department.”
Kotter said the plan to provide the federal government with the invaluable reclaimed wastewater and untapped Colorado River water rights from the city of Bullhead was a huge demand that many would knock on the agency’s door. Said it would fill the bullhead bread better.
“We’re sitting here in a position that I think is better than Yuma, better than Havasu, better than Las Vegas,” Kotter said. “We can actually offer something that is truly water saving.”
Clark said the proposed city grant would help return 8,000 acre feet of water to the river each year. “We see this as a great opportunity for us to not just take a step forward, but take a giant leap forward in getting this water system.”
