Trump Veto Disrupts Financing for $1.4B Colorado Water Project Already Under Way

President Donald Trump’s Dec. 30 veto of laws supposed to ease compensation phrases for a long-delayed federal water venture has injected new uncertainty into completion of the Arkansas Valley Conduit, a pipeline already below development totally inside Colorado.

The End the Arkansas Valley Conduit Act was one among two payments Trump vetoed at the beginning 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 development funding. As an alternative, it sought to alter how native communities repay the federal authorities by capping native duty at 35% of development prices and permitting the remaining steadiness to be repaid over as much as 75 years at a lowered 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. Development 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 response to the Southeastern Colorado Water Conservancy District.

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Development is underway on the venture’s essential 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 12 months from Pueblo Reservoir to 39 communities throughout southeastern Colorado.

 What It Will Take to End

Complete venture prices have climbed to roughly $1.4 billion, in response to federal and native estimates, that means properly over $1 billion in development and supply work stays past the trunk line now below development.

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

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

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With a Veto, What Occurs Subsequent?

In his veto, Trump argued in a message to Congress that it could expose federal taxpayers to extra monetary threat.

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

For development, the veto halts a financing adjustment for an energetic federal venture by altering how current development prices can be repaid, not by blocking new authorization.

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

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

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

Hurd stated the laws was designed to guard current investments slightly than increase federal publicity.

“The vetoed laws didn’t authorize new development spending or increase the federal authorities’s unique dedication,” he stated. “Greater than $200 million has already been invested, alongside vital state and native contributions. Additional delay dangers stranding taxpayer {dollars} and leaving communities with out a viable path to assembly consuming water requirements.”

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

Whereas the veto doesn’t instantly halt development, venture officers stated present phases are funded and transferring ahead, though future segments would require both a veto override or different financing to proceed on schedule. Unresolved compensation phrases may delay or restrict later phases of the system.