San Juan Watershed Program BACKGROUND Water resources in the San Juan watershed, which encompasses the San Juan and Animas Rivers and Lake Powell, are essential for providing drinking water for people and animals, recreating, growing crops, and other cultural uses. Potential contamination sources within the watershed include historic mining activities that disturbed the land and exacerbated naturally occurring levels of metals and mineralization. Other contaminants include nutrients and bacteria from human or animal waste, or agricultural runoff. From 2017 to 2021, under the Water SAN JUAN WATERSHED AND ENCOMPASSING RIVERS Infrastructure Improvements for the Nation (WIIN) Act, the U.S. Congress appropriated $4 million per year to a long-term water quality program for the San Juan watershed. Under WIIN, and other legal authorities, EPA and the states and tribes within the watershed—Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, Navajo Nation, Ute Mountain Ute Tribe, and Southern Ute Indian Tribe—have worked together to assess, protect, and restore watershed condition. To date, EPA has allocated nearly $18.9 million in funding to support efforts to monitor water quality, assess data and literature, inform the public, and act on identified water quality problems. Collaboration and Capacity Building Every year, EPA, state, and tribal decisionmakers have worked together since program initiation to establish priorities, assess program accomplishments, communicate the outcomes of funded projects, and identify how resources can be applied with maximum benefit. Stakeholders have also worked together to build state and tribal capacity to continue collaborative, cross-watershed efforts into the future, including developing a watershed- San Juan River Animas River Southern Ute 3o well/, .Navajo Lake• COLORADO UTAH Farmington, NM Navajo Nation NEW MEXICO ARIZONA ------- wide monitoring plan, establishing relationships with local organizations throughout the watershed to leverage funding and resources, and meeting regularly to discuss needs and opportunities. Evolution and Innovation Since 2017, EPA, states, tribes, and other partners have used WIIN funding to continue and expand monitoring efforts, assess existing and new data and literature, inform the public on watershed condition, and act on identified problems. As the program has matured, funding has been increasingly focused on generating on the ground water quality improvements. M Utah $2,677,714 Southern Ute Tribe $2,877,664 Ute Mountain Ute Tribe $1,196,406 Navajo Nation $3,322,034 A Allocated $18.9 million in funding to support monitoring, data analysis, public outreach, and on the ground action to improve water quality. k. Assessed data gaps and existing watershed plans and designed projects to meet identified needs. i\ i/ Communicated watershed condition and status and outcomes of funded projects to the public through conferences, webinars, and interactive resources and tools. Through state and tribal funding recipients, engaged over 10 federal, tribal, state, university, non-profit, and other organizations in the watershed to support monitoring, research, restoration, and outreach. Collaborated across state and tribal boundaries to build a framework for long-term partnerships from the headwaters of the Animas River to Lake Powell. EPA 841-F-22-002 JUNE 2022 https://www.epa.qov/saniuanwatershed ------- |