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The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation has awarded more than $25.6 million in WaterSMART Water and Energy Efficiency Grants to support projects that increase water and energy conservation and efficiency, protect endangered species or address climate-related impacts on water.

A total of 53 projects in 11 states will receive the FY 2016 grants. Those states include California, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oklahoma, Oregon, Texas, Utah, Washington and Wyoming.

Hello, and welcome to another episode of our environmental policy podcast, Parts Per Billion. This is where we chat with reporters and newsmakers to bring you the stories behind our stories.

Today we bring you the first of a two-part conversation between George Hawkins, head of the local water utility here in Washington, and Bloomberg BNA water policy reporter Amena Saiyid.

After weeks of uncertainty and pressure from members of Congress, federal officials on Wednesday announced a plan for managing water releases from California’s largest reservoir this summer in a manner that will not involve cutbacks in farm water deliveries – at least if all goes as hoped.

For more than a month, federal agencies have battled behind the scenes over how to balance the needs of California farms and two endangered fish species whose populations have been decimated by years of drought and environmental decline.

There’s a vast amount of untapped water in California, but whether it can make any difference for the drought-stricken state remains unclear. A new Stanford study indicates California’s groundwater supply is three times greater than previous estimates and could represent a potential “water windfall,” its authors say.

“There’s far more fresh water and usable water than we expected,” said Robert Jackson, co-author of the study, published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.