This Week at Interior April 7, 2023

This Week at Interior

Secretary Haaland traveled to Houston, Texas as part of the Administration’s Investing in America tour to highlight investments being made through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to create jobs and address legacy pollution. While there, the Secretary hosted a roundtable with labor leaders, environmental justice advocates and community members to discuss progress on implementation of the Law. She then visited two sites in the Houston area where funding is being used to plug orphaned oil and gas wells.  

Deputy Secretary Beaudreau continued the Investing in America tour with travel to Alaska. He announced more than $16 million in new funding from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to enhance the resilience of ecosystems and salmon in Alaska’s Yukon Kuskokwim and Norton Sound Region through co-stewardship with Alaska Native Tribes. Known as the “gravel-to-gravel" initiative, this effort will support locally led management and restoration in partnership with the more than 117 federally recognized Alaska Native Tribes that rely on the salmon, migratory birds and other subsistence resources provided by these watersheds. 

Deputy Secretary Beaudreau was joined by Bureau of Reclamation Commissioner Camille Calimlim Touton and Senior Advisor to the President and White House Infrastructure Implementation Coordinator Mitch Landrieu in the Colorado River Basin to announce a nearly $585 million investment from President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law for infrastructure repairs on water delivery systems throughout the West. Funding will go to 83 projects in 11 states to improve water conveyance and storage, increase safety, improve hydro power generation and provide water treatment.  

During a visit to the Gila River Indian Community as part of the Investing in America tour, Deputy Secretary Beaudreau and Senior Advisor Landrieu were joined by Deputy Bureau of Reclamation Commissioner David Palumbo to announce $133 million in historic funding and conservation agreements. The funding will help the Gila River Indian Community and water users across the Colorado River Basin protect the stability and sustainability of the System.

Reclamation also announced a $22 million investment from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law for four small surface and groundwater storage projects in California and Utah. The four projects will help stretch the limited water supplies in the Western United States and are located in Imperial Valley, Kern County, and San Joaquin Valley, California, and Toquerville, Utah. 

In a major milestone towards meeting the Biden-Harris administration’s goal to deploy 30 gigawatts of offshore wind energy by 2030, the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement has completed its review of critical design and installation reports for the South Fork Wind project offshore Rhode Island and New York. This clears the way for the construction of the first commercial-scale offshore wind turbines in federal waters in the United States. 

Interior announced it will hold nation-to-nation consultations with Tribes, and listening sessions with Indian artists and craftspeople, on draft amendments to regulations that implement the Indian Arts and Crafts Act. This is a truth-in-advertising law that makes it illegal to sell any art or craft product in a manner that falsely suggests it is “Indian-made.” The updates are aimed to help ensure that Native people can receive fair compensation for their work and further protect the authenticity of Indian-made products. 

Assistant Secretary for Water and Science Tanya Trujillo participated in a Nihimá Nahasdzáán Gallery Event this week to showcase Landsat imagery of the Navajo Nation. The gallery event, which translates as “Our Mother Earth,” was a partnership between the U.S. Geological Survey, NASA, the Navajo Nation and Museum and others. It provided a chance to reflect on the images, tools and data provided by the Landsat program, which has used satellites to collect Earth imagery for 50 years. 

This week, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Land and Minerals Management Laura Daniel-Davis and Bureau of Land Management Director Tracy Stone-Manning, celebrated the conveyance of five acres of public land in Clark County to the state of Nevada for affordable housing. The site will be used for the construction of 195 one- and two-bedroom units for low-income seniors and will include amenities like wellness centers, swimming pools, hair salons and conference rooms. Funding for the projects was generated through the sale of public lands under the Southern Nevada Public Land Management Act   

The National Park Service announced the addition of 963 acres to the preserve portion of New River Gorge National Park and Preserve near Sandstone, West Virginia. The land was transferred to NPS with funding from the Land and Water Conservation Fund and will increase outdoor recreation activities to the public. Commonly known as Irish Mountain, this historically significant swath of land is known for its links to Irish immigrants who settled locally in the late 1800s.  

And our social media Picture of Week is the Berryessa Snow Mountain National Monument, which includes some of the most scenic and biologically diverse landscapes in northern California. The views range from rolling, oak-studded hillsides to steep creek canyons and expansive ridge lines.  

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That's This Week, at Interior.