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Guardians of the Reservoir Challenge

www.herox.com/GuardiansoftheReservoir

Help sustain America’s reservoirs. We’re looking for ways to remove sedimentation that regularly accumulates in reservoirs.

$550,000 Prize

Challenge Overview: The challenge calls on the global community of solvers to find an innovative solution to remove and control the amount of sediment building up in the reservoirs that provide millions with irrigation, potable water, electricity, flood control, and recreation. The build-up of sediment leaves less room for water, and less water means that our reservoirs cannot meet the demand of the communities we serve.

The water infrastructure in the United States has aged, and there has been little technological advancement in sediment management for several decades. Despite best efforts, current “best practices” are expensive, energy-costly, and difficult to deploy year-round, given weather constraints (e.g., work can only be done when the reservoir water is not frozen.) Maintenance requires significant manpower and leaves a high carbon footprint.

There are currently no robust and cost-effective alternatives available to Reclamation and the US Army Corps of Engineers, who is a co-sponsor of this challenge.

The Prize: The authors of the most compelling submissions to this Guardians of the Reservoir Challenge will have the opportunity to develop and demonstrate their technologies at increasing scales for the Challenge sponsors. In addition to $550,000 of total prize money, winners will have access to subject matter experts from Reclamation and may receive external test data from their technologies and may have additional opportunities to work with Reclamation, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, or their partners to further develop their approaches.