Effort to Bring Water to Eastern New Mexico Inches Along

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — The U.S. government is funneling another $5 million to a pipeline project aimed at bringing billions of gallons of water a year to parts of eastern New Mexico.

One of six congressionally approved rural water projects underway nationwide, the Ute pipeline project has been decades in the making to ease the strain on the Ogallala aquifer, a massive groundwater supply that underlies parts of several states.

Communities along the New Mexico-Texas border are praising the latest infusion of funding, but the federal dollars represent just a fraction of what will be needed to complete the project. The cost has ballooned to more than $500 million.

In all, more than $46 million has been requested by the Bureau of Reclamation for the next fiscal year for the rural water projects.