Project Grant RO5931032625

The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation awarded a $575,089.48 Cooperative Agreement under the SECURE Water Act - Research Agreements program (CFDA 15.560) to Natural Ocean Well CO. on March 19, 2024. The project proposes to install and evaluate a submerged water filtration system in the Las Virgenes Reservoir. Submerged water filtration is an unconventional approach that can reduce energy requirements by leveraging natural hydrostatic pressure, while also protecting the system from atmospheric climate...

The Western States Water Council (WSWC) was awarded a $914,401 Project Grant from the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation's Applied Science Grants program (CFDA 15.557) to develop a web-based water conservation tool. This tool will integrate the WESTDAAT system with the OPENET platform to streamline applications for voluntary, compensated water conservation measures across the western United States. The project aims to address data gaps that have hindered effective water conservation and marketing...

This $256,000 National Science Foundation project grant will fund research and development of a digital platform utilizing distributed ledger technology to improve water rights management and enable water markets in the Western United States. Awarded under the NSF Technology, Innovation, and Partnerships program, the grant recipient Wetx Inc. will develop a unique combination of distributed ledger tokenization and decentralized distributed file storage to digitally represent water rights and...

The U.S. Department of the Interior Bureau of Reclamation awarded a $600,493.97 Cooperative Agreement to Pure Blue TECH Inc., doing business as Pure Blue, under the SECURE Water Act - Research Agreements program (CFDA 15.560). The funding supports the manufacturing and field piloting of novel anti-fouling nanopatterned ultrasonic reverse osmosis (RO) membrane elements for efficient, high-recovery desalination of brackish water and purification of surface water. The key innovation is the...

The Bureau of Reclamation awarded a $485,800 Project Grant to the Western Municipal Water District of Riverside County (WMWD) under the Applied Science Grants program (CFDA 15.557) to implement the GIS Data Acquisition and Leak Mapping Analysis for Improved Water Management Project. This project will field-verify and collect GPS data to correct spatial inaccuracies in WMWD's existing GIS database, improve data workflow, enhance asset management capabilities, and provide data to support...

The Bureau of Reclamation, through the Water Recycling and Desalination Construction Programs (CFDA 15.504), awarded a $2,258,444 Project Grant to the Rancho California Water District in California. The grant will fund the development of a feasibility study to optimize the district's existing water treatment, storage, and distribution infrastructure. Key objectives include identifying opportunities to maximize the use of recycled water, support economic development through a sustainable water...

The Bureau of Reclamation awarded a $167,933 Project Grant under its Applied Science Grants program (CFDA 15.557) to the California State University Fresno Foundation. The grant will fund the development of a leak detection framework for the City of Lakewood, California's water distribution system. The project will determine optimal sensor placement and apply deep learning methodology to improve the detection of water leaks, with the goal of reducing water losses by an estimated 34.7% and...

This $220,000 Project Grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) Mathematical and Physical Sciences (CFDA 47.049) program will fund the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB) to develop new mathematical tools and computational methods for designing efficient and fair water markets. The project aims to address challenges in the sustainable and equitable management of groundwater resources, which is critical for climate change adaptation in drought-affected regions. The research will...

The Bureau of Reclamation awarded a $400,000 Project Grant under the Water Recycling and Desalination Construction Programs (CFDA 15.504) to the Western Municipal Water District (WMWD) of Riverside County, California. The grant will support a comprehensive water reuse feasibility study aimed at bolstering local groundwater supplies and fortifying regional water supply reliability in the drought-prone Southern California region. The study will take a holistic approach to examining the water reuse...

Federal Grant Award Summary The Orange County Water District received a $412,457 Project Grant award from the U.S. Department of the Interior's Bureau of Reclamation under the WaterSMART (Sustain and Manage America's Resources for Tomorrow) program (CFDA 15.507) on December 23, 2025. The award funds a comprehensive water strategy development effort to address seawater intrusion threatening nine drinking water wells that produce over 16,000 acre-feet per year near Seal Beach Naval Weapons Station...