With the assistance of Best Best & Krieger LLP’s Government Relations team, including Senior Director of Governmental Affairs John Freshman in Washington, D.C., a client received almost $500,000 in federal funding for water reclamation and reuse projects and studies.
 
The Las Virgenes-Triunfo Joint Powers Authority will receive these funds from the U.S. Department of the Interior Bureau of Reclamation for its Pure Water Project. The funds will go to the research and study of an innovative project that aims to take surplus recycled water and process it through an advanced treatment facility, then storing it at Las Virgenes Reservoir to be used when needed as drinking water.
 
In announcing the $23.6 million in grants last week, Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke said the funding “provides essential tools for stretching limited water supplies by helping communities reclaim and reuse wastewater and impaired ground or surface waters.”
 
To help the JPA secure these funds in a highly competitive field, BB&K set up meetings with critical Congressional delegations and Bureau of Reclamation officials, and accompanied them to the meetings. In addition, BB&K helped create an effective communication strategy to explain the project, and its benefits to the community.
 
The funding is part of the Title XVI Program Water Reclamation and Reuse program. The Pure Water Project is one of four in California and Kansas to receive funds for “research to establish or expand water reuse markets, improve or expand existing water reuse facilities and streamline the implementation of clean water technology at new facilities,” according to the Bureau.

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