Chris Udall is the latest Alliance Advisory Committee member to appear in the media in support of the Western water initiative that the Alliance is helping to advance, along with ACWA, California Farm Bureau, NWRA and Western Growers.

Chris and his team at Agribusiness & Water Council of Arizona are doing a tremendous job of leading communication efforts in his state.  This guest commentary was posted on the Tempe, Mesa, Apache Junction and Daily Independent websites, including here. It also ran in the printed and mailed Mesa Independent newspaper. Chris was interviewed by News Channel 3 & 5 in the Phoenix area.

We were also pleased to see Alliance Director Don Schwindt in the news featured in this recent Water Education Colorado article about the drop in reservoir levels because of drought.

Two Alliance members, the Klamath Water Users Association and Talent Irrigation District, were highlighted in an NPR affiliate Jefferson Public Radio 21 minute in-depth story on challenges facing Southern Oregon irrigators.

We have been fortunate to have a long-running platform to share the Alliance’s positions with the Western Farmer-Stockman. Two recent pieces, authored by Alliance Executive Director Dan Keppen, focus on one critical drought solution: expanding infrastructure investment.

Dan Keppen advocates that Congress must include provisions for Western water infrastructure in any stimulus package advanced this year in this op-ed.

“We must look to several solutions to maintain food security for the nation and the economic wellbeing of the Western landscape,” he writes. “”We must invest in Western water infrastructure and technology.”

In this op-ed, the Alliance argues that the Administration and Congress shouldn’t neglect Western water as part of an infrastructure solution.

“The severe drought punishing much of the West only emphasizes the need to plan now for future droughts and provide the funding needed to not only fix, but also ‘build back better’ the national system responsible for delivering water to homes, businesses, farms and the environment.”

President Biden recently met with the congressional leadership of both parties on the scope of a possible “hard infrastructure” bill. The White House has asked for the GOP to provide a counter proposal to the White House in the coming weeks. Those discussions, if fruitful, will continue in the coming weeks. Regardless, in the House, committees are continuing to work toward an infrastructure package that is expected to be on the House Floor by July 4^th.