Nevada tribe stripped of $20M water grant
A Nevada tribe has lost a $20 million grant, which would have better guaranteed water access on the reservation, in the Trump administration’s purge on what it calls excessive federal spending.
The grant, which has been in limbo since President Donald Trump took office this year, would have been the funding the tribe needed to finish a water infrastructure project that would have increased reliability of supply and allowed for construction within the boundaries of the 325,000-square-acre reservation about 100 miles southeast of Reno.
It would have built a community resilience hub on the reservation, too, adding a nutritional wellness building to the reservation’s food pantry and serving as a space for tribal members to gather during emergencies or to use as a cooling center during bouts of extreme heat. The hub was planned to have solar energy and battery storage, as well.
However, the grant is one of 84 Community Change grants the Trump administration’s Environmental Protection Agency has canceled in a push against diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives — leaving the future of the projects unclear.
“This project is not about DEI,” Kirsten Stasio, CEO of the Nevada Clean Energy Fund that was awarded the grant, said in an interview Friday. “These are critical infrastructure projects for a tribal rural community that’s also going to benefit the surrounding rural communities. It’s very much aligned with the administration’s priorities in terms of reducing energy costs and boosting resilience.”
The $13 million water project already had begun its design and engineering phase, Stasio said, but without more funds, it’s unlikely to come to fruition.
Feds claim project is ‘wasteful DEI’
The EPA confirmed it wouldn’t meet the grant obligation in a letter obtained by the Las Vegas Review-Journal that was dated May 1. The letter said the intended project would “not accomplish the EPA funding priorities for achieving program goals.”
“Maybe the Biden-Harris Administration shouldn’t have forced their radical agenda of wasteful DEI programs and ‘environmental justice’ preferencing on the EPA’s core mission of protecting human health and the environment,” an agency spokesperson said in a statement.
Walker River Paiute Tribal Chair Melanie McFalls could not be reached for comment on Friday, but the tribal council previously has emphasized that these projects are a lifeline for the reservation’s 1,200 or so tribal members.
Stasio said she finds the conflation of DEI initiatives and the infrastructure project preposterous.
Her organization is in contact with Gov. Joe Lombardo’s office to find a solution, and neither a lawsuit nor alternative funding sources have been ruled out.
“I think it’s a misunderstanding by the Trump administration,” Stasio said, “but we’re not pursuing federal funds to replace it at this point.”
The governor’s office did not respond to a request for comment.
Contact Alan Halaly at [email protected]. Follow @AlanHalaly on X.
