Southern Nevada Water Authority

Southern Nevada Water Authority (SNWA), a U.S. government entity headquartered in Las Vegas, Nevada, receives federal grants as a prime recipient for water resource management, conservation, environmental restoration, and drought resilience work in the Colorado River Basin, with nearly all recent awards flowing through the Bureau of Reclamation and sister Interior agencies.

SNWA is a public water authority, not a for-profit contractor, and therefore does not compete in federal procurements or hold set-aside certifications. Its federal footprint consists almost entirely of grant awards (97% prime recipient status) and cooperative agreements from Interior Department agencies funding water supply optimization, habitat restoration, hydrodynamic and water-quality modeling, and wastewater infrastructure. Recent activity shows six awards per year in 2022 and eight in 2023, with nine awards in 2024 and two through mid-2026; the source data carry a combined potential value of $98 thousand, though obligated dollars total $81.6 million, indicating substantial awards with multi-year funding cycles.

The Department of the Interior Bureau of Reclamation dominates SNWA's customer concentration, accounting for 52 awards and $46 thousand of combined potential value and covering 86% of all awards across Interior's component agencies. The funding agency profile reflects Reclamation's water policy priorities: WaterSMART program grants (CFDA 15.507) for conservation and drought resilience, the Reclamation States Emergency Drought Relief program (CFDA 15.514) for septic-system conversion incentives, and SECURE Water Act research agreements (CFDA 15.560) for drinking-water treatment innovation. Named examples include a $1.999 million WaterSMART Project Grant awarded February 2026 for riparian habitat restoration at the Warm Springs Natural Area; a $4.973 million WaterSMART award in August 2023 for artificial-turf conversion at 22 Clark County school fields, targeting 337 acre-feet of annual water savings; a $3 million cooperative agreement from EPA Region 9 in July 2024 for septic-to-sewer conversion infrastructure; and a $248,800 Natural Resource Stewardship cooperative agreement from the National Park Service in July 2024 to maintain water-quality monitoring buoys on Lakes Mead and Mohave.

SNWA's capability portfolio centers on Colorado River Basin water management and conservation. Work includes hydrodynamic and water-quality modeling (Lakes Mead and Mohave 3D models, backcasting scenarios for machine-learning applications), riparian and wetland habitat restoration targeting endangered species such as the Moapa Dace and Southwestern Willow Flycatcher, water-supply efficiency programs (landscape rebates, cooling-system upgrades, recycled-water feasibility studies), and construction management and environmental monitoring for large water-infrastructure projects. A June 2024 Bureau of Reclamation grant funds the Las Vegas Wash Coordination Committee leadership activities, spanning revegetation, water-quality monitoring, invasive-species removal, and erosion control across 28 member agencies. SNWA also conducts applied research on drinking-water treatment (dissolved-air-flotation testing for particle removal), quantitative microbial risk assessment modeling for pathogen control, and cloud-seeding effectiveness in the Upper Colorado River Basin.

Six awards reach ultimate completion within the next twenty-four months and face recompete in that window. In its minimal subrecipient role, SNWA provides column-testing support and PFAS-removal analysis on a Texas Tech University System water-treatment research award dated June 2026. SNWA does not carry federal contract vehicles, IDIQs, or GWACs and does not function as a prime contractor or subcontractor on federal contracts — its federal role is exclusively as a grant and cooperative-agreement recipient managing Interior-funded water resource and conservation projects in Southern Nevada and the Lower Colorado River Basin.