To help improve drinking water, U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) on April 28 cosponsored a bipartisan bill that would ramp up federal desalination funding from $5 million per year to $20 million annually through fiscal year 2026.
Rep. Mace cosponsored the Desalination Research Advancement Act, H.R. 7612, with bill sponsor U.S. Rep. Mike Levin (D-CA) to reauthorize and increase funding authorization for the Bureau of Reclamation’s Desalination and Water Purification Research (DWPR) Program, which provides funding for desalination efforts that reduce environmental impacts, lower energy consumption, and develop more advanced desalination technologies.
“I represent many coastal communities in the Lowcountry of South Carolina, and I know how important the desalination process is in providing clean drinking water,” Rep. Mace said last week. “By re-authorizing grants in the [DWPR] Program, we can ensure our technology can provide clean drinking water for years to come.”
Currently, the DWPR Program is capped at providing no more than $1 million in total grants for academic institutions, according to information provided by Rep. Mace’s office. This prevents federal investments in innovative desalination and water purification research because academic institutions are typically the first to take risks on new technologies, the information says.
If enacted, H.R. 7612 would increase the program’s cap on annual funding for academic research grants to $15 million and would expand the DWPR Program’s list of priority funding areas to include research on approaches to monitor and decrease the impact of seawater desalination on coastal ecosystems, states the information.
“As we confront increasingly frequent and intense droughts in California, we must advance desalination projects that use the latest technologies to protect our environment while increasing our local supply of drinking water,” said Rep. Levin. “This bipartisan bill will ensure the federal government is making adequate investments in academic institutions and others that are doing this critical work.”
Rep. Mace also pointed out that H.R. 7612 would have a direct impact on the Hilton Head Public Service District’s Reverse Osmosis Drinking Water Treatment Facility “and help it treat brackish groundwater at an affordable price for ratepayers.”