USDA Working with Interior To Help Address Water Shortages

Some farmers in the west are dealing with droughts that are lingering longer and are more intense, making water scarce, or sometimes unavailable at all, but the NRCS said there are things that can be done to help the situation.
Astor Boozer, western regional conservationist at NRCS, said several federal departments have programs to help producers to conserve water and mitigate against drought, but, "Not one agency can do it all themselves, so there's more of "how can we collaborate together to get this work done", and that is happening he noted.

USDA's putting $21-million into the Interior Department's Water Smarts Program, working with that agency on 40 water projects helping producers and communities with things like:

Putting in additional pipe, closing canals; actually reinforcing some of that overall infrastructure that has declined; decayed."

Wasting millions of gallons of precious water through leakage and evaporation. Boozer said collaboration among all the stakeholders would help speed up water conservation efforts in the west. 

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