On Wednesday, October 13, 2004, Reclamation Commissioner John W. Keys will present the Stevinson Water District, located south of Turlock, Calif, with a Water 2025 Challenge Grant Award to assist in improving water conservation in its canal system. The $300,000 grant from the Department of the Interior will help the District replace more than 23,000 feet of open canals with pipe that will help conserve more than 1,100 acre feet of water that would otherwise be lost through seepage. The total project cost is $1,566,500.

WHO: John W. Keys, III, Commissioner of Reclamation Stevinson Water District Board President Les Azevedo Merquin County Water District Board President Rick Jones

WHAT: Commissioner Keys will present a $300,000 Challenge Grant to the Stevinson Water District

WHEN: 3:30 p.m., Wednesday, October 13, 2004

WHERE: State Highway 140, 1/2 mile east of Van Clief Road

The Water 2025 Challenge Grants - administered by the Bureau of Reclamation - provide local water and irrigation districts throughout the West with funds to support a variety of projects to make more efficient use of existing water supplies through water conservation, efficiency, and water marketing projects. The Challenge Grant program focuses on meeting the goals identified in Water 2025: Preventing Crises and Conflict in the West. In late June, Interior Secretary Gale Norton approved more than $4 million dollars in water conservation grants under the Water 2025 Challenge Grant Program. President George Bush has requested $21 million for the initiative in Fiscal Year 2005.

Directions from Turlock - Exit State Highway 99 at Lander Ave, proceed south 12 miles on State Highway 165 to State Highway 140, then turn left (east) and proceed to the site.