When the Walker River Paiute Tribe finally received a $20 million grant in December, tribal leaders were excited to finally begin work on a variety of infrastructure projects including long-awaited improvements to the tribe’s patchy water infrastructure system.

“[With the grant], we're able to build more homes and provide economic development for our community, because that will help sustain us financially and provide jobs for our people here,” Walker River Paiute Tribe Chair Melanie McFalls said in an interview.

Tribal leaders were hopeful the funds would alleviate the tribe’s beleaguered water supply and low water pressure, which served not only as a health and fire hazard but acted as a natural cap on population growth as new homes could not be built on tribal land with the existing water supply.

The last piece of the financial puzzle that the tribe needed to finance the work stemmed from the Inflation Reduction Act’s Community Change Grants Program, part of the Environmental Justice Program created by the 2022 climate law.

But despite the Biden administration’s effort to obligate as many grants as possible before President Donald Trump took office, its recent suspension — first reported by The Nevada Current — appears to have been caught up in the new Trump administration’s crusade against diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI). 

On March 7, the Nevada Clean Energy Fund (NCEF) — the lead applicant on the grant — discovered it could no longer access the $20 million fund. Three days later on March 10, EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin announced he was cancelling more than $1.7 billion worth of “DEI and Environmental Justice” grants, as part of the Department of Government Efficiency’s (DOGE) efforts to cut government spending and compliance with Trump’s executive order to eliminate DEI across the government.

Between the Trump administration’s federal funding freeze in late January — which was overturned by courts — and the current suspension of the grant, McFalls said the tribe’s projects are stuck in limbo and procurements have been paused. Though Nevada elected officials are trying to help, other funding streams — contingent on construction starting in September — also hang in the balance.

“Without the Community Change Grant funding, this stops our project,” McFalls said. “And if we don't find the funding to fulfill it, then we lose all the funding associated to complete this project.”

In a statement to The Nevada Independent, an EPA spokesperson said the agency is “reviewing its grant funding to ensure it is [an] appropriate use of taxpayer dollars and to understand how those programs align with Administration priorities,” as is typical of new administrations.

What got cancelled

The $20 million was designated for long-needed water and energy infrastructure work on the Walker River Paiute Reservation, which encompasses 325,000 square acres across Mineral, Churchill and Lyon counties. Working with NCEF, the grant would have funded the retrofitting of 150 homes for energy-efficiency improvements.

Using grant dollars, the tribe also planned to construct a community resilience hub — a space for emergency use before and after disasters, including shelter from extreme heat. And the EPA approved a number of other climate-related upgrades for the hub, including solar and battery storage and an energy-efficient heat pump.

As part of the community resilience hub, the grant would fund construction of a new nutritional wellness building for the tribe’s food pantry. Currently, the pantry — which McFalls said she believes is the only operating tribal facility of its type in Nevada — is in a shared space with a technology center.

Finally, a portion of the grant is supposed to go toward the construction of the tribe’s water looping project, a large undertaking to transform the reservation’s current water system, which has limited capacity and low water pressure — an impediment to new construction and a safety hazard.

The tribe was planning to construct a new water storage tank and install 24,000 feet of water mains, more than 50 fire hydrants and dozens of domestic water connections.

“I don't think our water system has ever been improved like this since I've been here as a child,” McFalls said. 

Engineering for the water looping project has already been completed, and the necessary procurement and design are close to finished, NCEF CEO Kirsten Stasio said. The project is anticipated to cost $13 million and be completed in 2027.

The tribe has already spent over $1 million on the upgrades, but the project will “crumble” without the promised $20 million Community Change Grant, she said.

Job creation has been imperiled as well. In addition to the construction and technology, the Community Change Grant funded 14 new positions for water treatment plant operations, including training and certifications, McFalls said. 

The anti-’environmental justice’ crusade

The Trump administration has aggressively moved to eliminate any funding for “environmental justice” — a key buzzword for opponents of DEI — and dismantle President Joe Biden’s Justice40 initiative, which sought to direct 40 percent of benefits from federal environmental programs to poor communities that have borne the brunt of pollution. Trump revoked the initiative on his first day in office as part of the DEI purge, though the Biden program was intentionally written to be race neutral.

The EPA closed down its Department of Environmental Justice and External Civil Rights — which was responsible for the Community Change Grants — and its equivalents in all 10 of its regional offices, and placed all regional environmental justice staff on administrative leave. 

Other funds benefiting the tribe also have been frozen. The Department of Agriculture canceled an agreement that provided funds for the tribe to purchase food grown within 400 miles of the reservation and distribute it to community members through its food pantry, which is used by 40 percent of the reservation’s population.

As obligated funding, Community Change Grant awardees likely have a strong legal case to recoup their grants. But Nevada political leaders are hoping to get the grant reinstated through behind-the-scenes lobbying — a task best-suited to the Republicans whose calls are more likely to be answered by the Trump administration.

Rep. Mark Amodei (R-NV) — whose Northern Nevada-based district includes the Walker River Paiute Reservation — learned about the suspension of the grant Monday, per his office. Amodei has since reached out to EPA leadership about releasing the funds — and is working on a backup plan to secure funding for the tribe’s priorities in case he is rebuffed.

When asked if he planned to reach out to contacts in the White House, Gov. Joe Lombardo’s office said he was evaluating how to proceed.

“The Office of the Governor is aware of the suspension and is in communication with the EPA and the Walker River Paiute Tribe to determine appropriate next steps,” spokesperson Elizabeth Ray said.

And while the Democrats in the congressional delegation are coordinating with the tribe and NCEF to find the best path forward, Sen. Jacky Rosen (D-NV) laid the blame squarely on the White House.

“The Trump administration’s freeze of this funding is a slap in the face to Tribal families, and I will continue working with my colleagues to reverse this misguided action,” Rosen said in a statement.