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**This blog was updated May 16, 2025**
On January 28, 2025, Governor Hobbs announced a $60.3 million investment in Arizona's water supply resilience - including an additional $14.1 million to the Water Conservation Grant Fund to support conservation efforts across the state.
The Water Infrastructure Finance Authority of Arizona (WIFA) has awarded $214,100,000 to applicants across the state to achieve long-term water conservation. The total projected water savings from these activities is 3.6 million acre-feet to 6.1 million acre-feet (one acre-foot is 325,851 gallons).
Here is a snapshot of the awarded Water Conservation Grant Fund (WCGF) conservation initiatives:
The WCGF came from the 2022 Arizona legislature’s investment of $200 million for water conservation efforts to save water and improve water reliability—a much needed boost for one of the driest states in the country. WIFA has since established an ambitious target to save 5 million acre-feet (more than 1.6 trillion gallons!) of water through the WCGF.
Here is what you need to know about the WCGF:
Who is eligible to apply for WCGF money?
Applicants must be a water provider (for example: a Tribe, city, town, county, irrigation district, private water company) or a nongovernmental organization that focuses on environmental conservation that partners with a water provider. The applicant also must provide at least a 25 percent funding match.
What type of conservation activities are eligible to apply for WCGF?
WIFA was accepting applications for a wide range of innovative projects (eligible for up to $250,000 in funding) and programs (eligible for up to $3 million in funding) all with the same goal: to save water now and into the future.
Categories of eligible conservation activities include:
Are applications still open?
WIFA received more than 250 applications during the first six grant cycles. The second installment of monies (funded by Governor Hobbs' 2025 investment in water supply resilience) garnered another 76 applications, demonstrating the need and buy-in from Arizona water users that they can and want to use less water.
What process does each application go through?
The process works like this:
1. Eligible applicants apply for a WCGF grant
2. WIFA staff ensures all criteria is met
3. WCGF Committee reviews selected proposals for recommendation
4. Final approval is voted on by the WIFA Board of Directors. (I’m excited and honored to serve on the WCGF Committee, representing a conservation advocacy organization—the National Audubon Society.)
How do the WCGF Committee and WIFA Board decide which applications should be approved?
The WCGF Committee and WIFA Board of Directors have had lengthy conversations about the impressive applications up for review. We have grappled with the challenges of comparing water conservation efforts. Water conservation is multifaceted. No two projects or programs are the same, whether you look at who it impacts, where it is located, how much water it saves, or how much it costs.
Water conservation also has immeasurable co-benefits—like how removing grass lessens the application of herbicides; or the overall community education and benefit provided by growing native plants, which save water and are beautiful (and good for birds) as well.
Are there any standardized costs or water savings for water conservation?
To outline the various considerations for water conservation—as well as augmentation—projects, Audubon and partners published the report Investing in Arizona’s Water Future. This report explores considerations for some of the most well-known conservation and augmentation projects. Don’t have time to read the full report? There is a two-page executive summary available.
In addition to funding efforts to conserve the water we have, is WIFA looking at new water supplies?
Yes. The same 2022 legislation that funded the WCGF also authorized the Long-Term Water Augmentation Fund (LTWAF), which is tasked with bringing new water supplies into our state. WIFA is in the early stages of developing the LTWAF program, identifying future water demands and opportunities to augment current water supplies and requesting information from stakeholders. You can read Audubon’s input here.
Are WIFA meetings open to the public?
They are! Check out WIFA’s Public Meetings if you want to tune in, comment, just learn more about all the work going on at WIFA to fund water systems around the state.
Want to do your part to help you conserve Arizona’s most precious resource? Check out our blog, What Can I do to Save Water?