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America’s water and wastewater infrastructure is entering a period of reinvestment, and because of that, opportunities for collaboration between private sector firms and public entities will be abundant in 2026.

Decades-old treatment plants, pump stations, and collection systems are being pushed beyond their original design lives by population growth, tighter environmental regulations, and volatile weather patterns. Public officials are moving to protect and upgrade the nation’s critical water infrastructure, and demand for experienced partners will be high demand for the next several years.

A historic meeting took place at the nation’s capital on Friday as Colorado Gov. Jared Polis joined governors from across the Colorado River Basin.

He joined the governors of Utah, Wyoming, New Mexico, California, Nevada and Arizona in talks centered on how to reach an agreement that protects the Colorado River. Polis said the discussion focused on next steps, timelines and a commitment from all of the states involved to avoid litigation.

President Donald Trump and California Gov. Gavin Newsom are so in sync on California water that they’re in a race to capture as much of it as possible — even at each other’s expense.

Trump and Newsom’s relative alignment on water issues has been good news all around for farmers and cities that draw from both sides of the state’s main water hub: the federally run Central Valley Project, and the aptly named State Water Project, which is state-run.

California has hundreds of miles of coastline, yet melted snow from other states remains an important source of its water. Perhaps a needed change is on the horizon — one that would even help Nevada.

Interstate negotiations over the Colorado River appear deadlocked. The three Lower Basin states, including Nevada, remain at odds with their four Upper Basin counterparts. There is significant disagreement over what to do when the river doesn’t deliver enough water. Unfortunately, that has been the reality for many years, as the river was overallocated from the beginning. Lake Mead is forecast to drop even further in the coming months.

The Trump administration on Friday gave its approval for plans to build Sites Reservoir, a vast 13-mile-long off-stream lake north of Sacramento that would provide water to 500,000 acres of Central Valley farmland and 24 million people, including residents of Santa Clara County, parts of the East Bay and Los Angeles.

The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation issued a document called a “record of decision” for the proposed project, signing off on its environmental review process.