Trump Veto Disrupts Financing for Colorado Water Project Already Under Way

President Donald Trump’s veto of laws meant to ease reimbursement phrases for a long-delayed federal water mission has injected new uncertainty into completion of the Arkansas Valley Conduit, a pipeline already below building completely inside Colorado.

The End the Arkansas Valley Conduit Act was one in all two payments Trump vetoed at first of 2026, marking the primary vetoes of his second time period regardless of bipartisan passage in each chambers. The opposite measure was unrelated to infrastructure.

The Arkansas Valley Conduit invoice, H.R. 131, didn’t authorize new building funding. As an alternative, it sought to alter how native communities repay the federal authorities by capping native accountability at 35% of building prices and permitting the remaining stability to be repaid over as much as 75 years at a decreased rate of interest, topic to a monetary hardship dedication by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation.

The invoice was sponsored within the Home by Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.), with Rep. Jeff Hurd (R-Colo.) as a cosponsor, and launched within the Senate by Sens. Michael Bennet and John Hickenlooper, each Democrats from Colorado.

The measure handed the Home by voice vote and the Senate by unanimous consent on Dec. 14, 2025. Building on the conduit started in 2023, and greater than $200 million has already been invested by a mixture of federal, state and native funding, in accordance with the Southeastern Colorado Water Conservancy District.

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Building is underway on the mission’s primary trunk line, which incorporates greater than 120 miles of pipeline now being delivered below the Bureau of Reclamation’s rural water program.

As soon as accomplished, the complete Arkansas Valley Conduit system is deliberate to incorporate as much as roughly 230 miles of pipeline, together with distribution spurs, designed to ship as much as 7,500 acre-ft of handled water per yr from Pueblo Reservoir to 39 communities throughout southeastern Colorado.

What It Will Take to End

Whole mission prices have climbed to roughly $1.4 billion, in accordance with federal and native estimates, which means properly over $1 billion in building and supply work stays past the trunk line now below building.

Venture sponsors and federal officials attribute the escalation primarily to building inflation, rising supplies and labor prices, and scope enlargement because the mission moved from many years of planning into phased building. Authentic price assumptions from the mission’s Sixties authorization didn’t account for contemporary drinking-water remedy requirements, longer distribution laterals wanted to succeed in smaller communities, or sharp will increase in metal, concrete and gas costs since 2020. Federal building price indexes present water-infrastructure inputs stay properly above pre-2020 ranges, compounding price strain on long-duration tasks just like the conduit.

The mission serves communities in Pueblo, Bent, Crowley, Kiowa, Otero and Prowers counties, the place many techniques depend on groundwater sources that naturally comprise radionuclides and don’t meet present federal ingesting water requirements. The Bureau of Reclamation has beforehand described the conduit as a essential rural water mission wanted to convey affected techniques into regulatory compliance.

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With a Veto, What Occurs Subsequent?

Trump vetoed the invoice Dec. 30, arguing in a message to Congress that it could expose federal taxpayers to further monetary danger.

“My administration is dedicated to stopping American taxpayers from funding costly and unreliable insurance policies,” Trump wrote. “Ending the large price of taxpayer handouts and restoring fiscal sanity is important to financial development and the fiscal well being of the nation.”

For building, the veto halts a financing adjustment for an energetic federal mission by altering how present building prices could be repaid, not by blocking new authorization.

“This isn’t a frivolous mission,” Chris Woodka, senior coverage and points supervisor for the Southeastern Colorado Water Conservancy District, advised Colorado Public Radio in an interview. “It’s a mission that meets federally mandated requirements for water high quality to make sure that 50,000 persons are ingesting clear, not carcinogenic, water.”

Members of Colorado’s congressional delegation mentioned the veto undercuts a uncommon bipartisan settlement on a rural infrastructure mission with substantial sunk prices.

“President Trump determined to veto a very non-controversial, bipartisan invoice that handed each the Home and Senate unanimously,” Boebert mentioned in a ready assertion.

Hurd mentioned the laws was designed to guard present investments moderately than broaden federal publicity.

“The vetoed laws didn’t authorize new building spending or broaden the federal authorities’s unique dedication,” he mentioned. “Greater than $200 million has already been invested, alongside important state and native contributions. Additional delay dangers stranding taxpayer {dollars} and leaving communities and not using a viable path to assembly ingesting water requirements.”

Bennet and Hickenlooper additionally criticized the veto and urged Congress to think about an override.

Whereas the veto doesn’t instantly halt building, mission officers mentioned present phases are funded and shifting ahead, although future segments would require both a veto override or various financing to proceed on schedule. Unresolved reimbursement phrases might delay or restrict later phases of the system.