WASHINGTON (AP) -- An irrigation project on the Wind River Indian Reservation will receive $1.75 million in federal funds, the Wyoming congressional delegation announced Wednesday.

The funding is part of a $7.5 million sum set aside in the Department of Interior's budget meant for rehabilitation of Indian irrigation systems in Wyoming, Montana and North Dakota.

The state of Wyoming will match the funds to the Wyoming reservation, which is home to the Eastern Shoshone and Northern Arapaho tribes. The project is owned and operated by the Bureau of Indian Affairs, but has fallen into disrepair in recent years.

"Ranchers can't survive if they're unable to irrigate their land," Sen. Craig Thomas said in a news release. "This irrigation system is in terrible shape, with as much as a quarter of the land not receiving the water it needs. This funding will begin to address a long-standing problem with irrigation on the Wind River Reservation."

Specific funding allocations for the $7.5 million had not been included in the Interior Department's appropriations bill, so the department had control over how it would be split.

Thomas, Sen. Mike Enzi and Rep. Barbara Cubin, all Republicans, wrote a letter in February to the department asking for the Wind River Irrigation Project to receive a "fair share" of the money.

In the letter to now former Interior Secretary Gale Norton, the lawmakers said about $60 million was needed to fully rehabilitate the irrigation program.

"While we agree that there is a need for improvements in both Montana and North Dakota, we are committed to ensuring that the WRIP receives substantial funding," the letter said. "The WRIP must be rehabilitated for the tribes of the Wind River Indian Reservation to become self-sustaining."

According to the news release, the WRIP ended up receiving the most of any reservation project that qualified for the funding.

"This funding has been a long time coming, and I look forward to seeing construction begin as soon as possible," Enzi said in the release.