USGS Water Resources budget cut $17.5M

The President's FY09 budget for the USGS Water Resources program is a mixed bag. The Water Resources Research Institutes, including the one at UA, would be zeroed out, a proposal that has been made previously but each time funding has been restored by Congress. The USGS Budget in Brief reports that:

USGS Water Resources — The Water Resources Investigations activity is funded at $203.0 million which is $17.5 million below the 2008 enacted budget. The budget includes an increase of $3.0 million in Ground-Water Resources for the water census portion of the Water for America initiative; and a net increase of $3.7 million in the National Streamflow Information program to expand watershed analysis, increase the number of critical streamgages in the nationwide network, and to modernize and stabilize older gages as part of the water security initiative.

The net change to the National Water Quality Assessment program is a reduction of $10.9 million including
a program reduction of $10.6 million and a travel reduction of $298,000. Focus is concentrated on the highest priority national synthesis research and data collection points. The Toxic Substances Hydrology program has a net reduction of $2.8 million to reduce lower priority efforts associated with NAWQA. A reduction of another $2.7 million eliminates unrequested increases in funding enacted in 2008. These savings will be directed toward other high priority USGS projects, including the National Water Census. Consistent with prior years, the budget eliminates funding for the Water Resources Research Act program.