OMAHA- The Department of the Interior has announced roughly $2 million in federal grant funds will go to water conservation projects in southwest Nebraska. A $1.1 million grant is to help defray the cost of a $2.68 million project in the Middle Republican Natural Resources District. The district includes at least parts of five counties: Frontier, Hayes, Hitchcock, Red Willow and Lincoln.

The other $834,310 grant is to help pay for a $2 million project in the Upper Republican Natural Resources District, which encompasses Dundy, Chase and Perkins Counties. These grants come as part of a $140 million national package. Much of the grant funding comes from the 2021 bipartisan infrastructure law that allocated $8.3 billion for national water infrastructure projects.

Natural resources districts, known as NRDs, empower locally elected community members to manage the state’s water resources, noted U.S. Sen. Deb Fischer, a member of the Senate Agriculture Committee and Senate Appropriations Committee. Jasper Fanning, general manager of the Upper Republican NRD, described the funds as “a big step forward” in efforts to increase efficiency in his area.

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