OREM — The threat of rain at Mount Timpanogos Park was a fitting welcome for Interior Secretary Gale Norton, the driving force behind a federal water conservation program for Western states.

"I never complain if there is a possibility of rain in the West," Norton said.

Norton was in Utah on Wednesday to award more than $2.5 million in Water 2025 Challenge Grants to help fund 11 projects addressing the state's long-term water needs. She praised the recipients for their innovation and initiative in utilizing technology to make better use of existing water supplies, conserve resources and save money.

"The hard fact is that the population is growing (in the West), but the water supply is not," Norton said. "Watersheds are sometimes over-allocated, water infrastructure is aging."

Those hard realities, she said, are the driving force behind Water 2025. The program, administered by the Interior's Department's Bureau of Reclamation, provides technical resources and matching funds to local water or irrigation districts in Western areas where conflict over water exists or is likely to occur in coming years.

"We will continue to face water shortages," Norton said, "but we can reduce water conflict, and we can avert water crises."

Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. was among the state and local government officials on hand to welcome Norton and look on as she signed the oversized cardboard checks during the awards ceremony.

"The drought in this state is over," Huntsman told Norton.

The governor then cautioned Utahns not to become complacent when it comes to water conservation.

"We have developed in this state a conservation ethic about water," Huntsman said. "We must maintain and hold onto that conservation ethic."

Grants issued to Utah organizations will provide funding for flow sensors and meters, expanded supervisory control and data acquisition systems, as well as water pipes to replace open canals. Including one grant given to Idaho, funding awarded Wednesday represents nearly $7 million in water improvements and will save approximately 68,000 acre-feet of water each year. One acre-foot of water on average is enough to meet the needs of a family of four for one year.

"Challenge Grants are the heart of the 2025 program," said Norton, who in January 2001 became the first woman to head the U.S. Department of the Interior.

Traditionally, the Bureau of Reclamation funded major water storage and irrigation projects through a congressional authorization process, she said. Such projects often spent years getting congressional approval only to wait several more years in order to get Congress to provide the funding.