United States Bureau of Reclamation

The Bureau of Reclamation, formerly the United States Reclamation Service, is a federal agency under the U.S. Department of the Interior, which oversees water resource management, specifically as it applies to the oversight and operation of the diversion, delivery, and storage projects that it has built throughout the western United States for irrigation, water supply, and attendant hydroelectric power generation. It is currently the U.S.'s largest wholesaler of water, bringing water to more than 31 million people, and providing one in five Western farmers with irrigation water for 10 million acres of farmland, which produce 60% of the nation's vegetables and 25% of its fruits and nuts. The bureau is also the second largest producer of hydroelectric power in the western U.S.

On June 17, 1902, in accordance with the Reclamation Act, Secretary of the Interior Ethan Allen Hitchcock established the U.S. Reclamation Service within the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). The new Reclamation Service studied potential water development projects in each western state with federal lands. Revenue from sale of federal lands was the initial source of the program's funding. Because Texas had no federal lands, it did not become a Reclamation state until 1906, when Congress passed a law including it in the provisions of the Reclamation Act.

History

File:Bureau of Reclamation regions.png

Bureau of Reclamation regions

From 1902 to 1907, Reclamation began about 30 projects in Western states. Then, in 1907, the Secretary of the Interior separated the Reclamation Service from the USGS and created an independent bureau within the Department of the Interior. Frederick Haynes Newell was appointed the first director of the new bureau. Beginning with the third person to take over the direction of Reclamation in 1923, David W. Davis, the title was changed from Director to Commissioner.

In the early years, many projects encountered problems: lands or soils included in projects were unsuitable for irrigation; land speculation sometimes resulted in poor settlement patterns; proposed repayment schedules could not be met by irrigators who had high land-preparation and facilities-construction costs; settlers were inexperienced in irrigation farming; waterlogging of irrigable lands required expensive drainage projects; and projects were built in areas which could only grow low-value crops. In 1923 the agency was renamed the "Bureau of Reclamation". In 1924, however, in the face of increasing settler unrest and financial woes, the "Fact Finder's Report" spotlighted major problematic issues; the Fact Finders Act in late 1924 sought to resolve some of these problems.

In 1928 Congress authorized the Boulder Canyon (Hoover Dam) Project, and large appropriations began, for the first time, to flow to Reclamation from the general funds of the United States. The authorization came only after a hard-fought debate about the pros and cons of public power versus private power.

The heyday of Reclamation construction of water facilities occurred during the Depression and the 35 years after World War II. From 1941 to 1947, Civilian Public Service labor was used to carry on projects otherwise interrupted by the war effort. The last major authorization for construction projects occurred in the late 1960s, while a parallel evolution and development of the American environmental movement began to result in strong opposition to water development projects. Even the 1976 failure of Teton Dam as it filled for the first time did not diminish Reclamation's strong international reputation in water development circles. However, this first and only failure of a major Reclamation Bureau dam led to subsequent strengthening of its dam-safety program to avoid similar problems. Even so, the failure of Teton Dam, the environmental movement, and the announcement of President Carter's "hit list" on water projects profoundly affected the direction of Reclamation's programs and activities.

Reclamation operates about 180 projects in the 17 western states. The total Reclamation investment for completed project facilities in September 1992 was about $11 billion. Reclamation projects provide agricultural, household, and industrial water to about one‑third of the population of the American West. About 5% of the land area of the West is irrigated, and Reclamation provides water to about one-fifth of that area, some 9,120,000 acres (37,000 km²) in 1992. Reclamation is a major American generator of electricity. since 2007Template:Dated maintenance category (articles), Reclamation had 58 power plants on‑line and generated 125,000 GJ of electricity.

From 1988 to 1994, Reclamation underwent major reorganization as construction on projects authorized in the 1960s and earlier drew to an end. Reclamation wrote that "The arid West essentially has been reclaimed. The major rivers have been harnessed and facilities are in place or are being completed to meet the most pressing current water demands and those of the immediate future". Emphasis in Reclamation programs shifted from construction to operation and maintenance of existing facilities. Reclamation's redefined official mission is to "manage, develop, and protect water and related resources in an environmentally and economically sound manner in the interest of the American public". In redirecting its programs and responsibilities, Reclamation substantially reduced its staff levels and budgets but remains a significant federal agency in the West.

File:Willard Bay State Park.jpg

On October 1, 2017, the Hoover Dam Police Department was closed and the National Park Service took over law enforcement duties for the Hoover Dam. The Hoover Dam Police Department existed for more than 80 years.

Leadership

Reclamation commissioners that have had a strong impact and molding of the Bureau have included Elwood Mead, Michael W. Straus, and Floyd Dominy, with the latter two being public-power boosters who ran the Bureau during its heyday. Mead guided the bureau during the development, planning, and construction of the Hoover Dam, the United States' first multiple-purpose dam.

John W. Keys, the 16th commissioner of the Bureau of Reclamation who served from July 2001 to April 2006, was killed two years after his retirement on May 30, 2008, when the airplane he was piloting crashed in Canyonlands National Park, Utah.

On June 26, 2017, President Donald Trump nominated Brenda Burman to serve as the commissioner of the United States Bureau of Reclamation. She was confirmed by the United States Senate on November 16, 2017. Burman is the first woman to ever lead the Bureau of Reclamation. David Murillo was serving as the acting commissioner of the bureau. Burman resigned on January 20 after the inauguration of the Biden administration.

The current commissioner is Camille Calimlim Touton, the first Filipino American to head the agency. She was confirmed by the United States Senate on November 4, 2021.

List of commissioners

The following is a list of commissioners since 1902:

No.	Image	Commissioner	Start	End	Notes
United States Reclamation Service
1	File:FHNewell.jpg	Frederick Haynes Newell	March 9, 1907	December 9. 1914
2	File:Davis1-600x748.jpg	Arthur Powell Davis	December 10, 1914	June 18, 1923
United States Bureau of Reclamation
3	File:DWDavis.jpg	David W. Davis	July 1, 1923	April 2, 1924
4	File:Elwood Mead, 1929.jpg	Elwood Mead	1924	January 26, 1936Template:Efn
actingTemplate:Efn		Mae Schnurr	1930Template:Efn	1936Template:Efn
5		John C. Page	January 25, 1937	August 2, 1943
6		Harry W. Bashore	August 3, 1943	1945
7		Michael W. Straus	1945	1953
acting		Goodrich W. Lineweaver	1953	1953
8		Wilbur A. Dexheimer	1953	1959
9	File:Floyd Dominy.jpg	Floyd E. Dominy	May 1, 1959	1969
10		Ellis L. Armstrong	1969	1973
11		Gilbert G. Stamm	1973	1977
acting		Donald D. Anderson	1977	1977
12		R. Keith Higginson	1977	1981
acting		Clifford I. Barrett	1981	1981
13		Robert N. Broadbent	1981	1984
acting		Robert A. Olson	December 1984	August 1985
acting		Clifford I. Barrett	1985	1985
14		C. Dale Duvall	December 1985	July 6, 1989
acting		Joe D. Hall	1989	1989
15		Dennis B. Underwood	November 14, 1989	1993
acting		Lawrence F. Hancock	1993	1993
16	File:Danielpbeard.JPG	Daniel P. Beard	May 1993	September 1, 1995
acting		Stephen V. Magnussen	September 2, 1995	December 1995
17		Eluid Martinez	December 1995	January 2001
acting		J. William McDonald	January 2001	July 15, 2001
18		John W. Keys	July 17, 2001	April 15, 2006
acting		William Rinne	April 16, 2006	October 2006
20		Robert (Bob) W. Johnson	October 2006	January 2009
acting		J. William McDonald	January 2009	May 2009
21	File:MichaelLConnor.jpg	Michael L. Connor	June 2009	February 28, 2014
acting		Lowell Pimley	March 5, 2014	October 1, 2014
acting		Estevan López	October 2, 2014	December 17, 2014
22			December 18, 2014	2016
–		David Murillo	January 20, 2017	November 15, 2017
23	File:Brenda Burman official photo 2.jpg	Brenda Burman	November 16, 2017	January 20, 2021
24	File:M. Camille Calimlim Touton, USBR Deputy Commissioner.jpg	M. Camille Calimlim Touton	December 15, 2021	January 20, 2025
acting	File:David Palumbo official portrait.jpg	David Palumbo	January 20, 2025	Present

Table notes: Template:Notelist

List of reclamation projects

• Animas-La Plata Water Project
• Boise Project
• Boulder Canyon Project
• Central Arizona Project Aqueduct
• Central Utah Project
• Central Valley Project
• Colorado-Big Thompson Project
• Colorado River Storage Project
• Columbia Basin Project
• Elwha River Dam Removal Project
• Fryingpan-Arkansas Project
• Gila Project
• High Plains Cooperative Pilot Project
• Huntley Project
• Klamath Project
• Minidoka Project
• Moon Lake Project
• Navajo-Gallup Water Supply Project
• North Platte Project
• Palo Verde Diversion Project
• Pojoaque Basin Regional Water System Project
• Project Skywater
• Rio Grande Project
• Shoshone Project
• Sierra Cooperative Pilot Project
• Strawberry Valley Project
• Washita Basin Project
• Yakima Project
• Yuma Auxiliary Project
• Yuma Project

See also

• Colorado River Aqueduct
• Desert Terminal Lakes Program
• Grand Coulee Dam
• List of United States Bureau of Reclamation dams
• Refuge Water Supply Program
• Riverside Canal (El Paso)
• Yuma Valley Railway, a predecessor of the Yuma Valley Railroad that was owned by USG along Colorado River in Yuma, Arizona

Further reading

• Beard, Daniel P. Deadbeat Dams: Why We Should Abolish the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation and Tear Down Glen Canyon Dam, (Johnson Books, 2015).
• Börk, Karrigan S. "'The Wilderness and the Dry Land Will Be Glad; and the Desert Will Rejoice and Blossom like a Rose': The Origins of the Bureau of Reclamation", Journal of the West 50 (Spring 2011), 60–74.
• Lee, Lawrence B. "100 years of reclamation historiography." Pacific Historical Review 47.4 (1978): 507–564.online; Covers 1) irrigation, 1878–1902, 2) reclamation service, 3) agricultural settlement, 1902–28, 4) engineering 1887–1953, 5) Department of Agriculture, 1898–1938, 6) historians, 1898–1978, and 7) challenges to Bureau
• Marc Reisner, Cadillac Desert: The American West and Its Disappearing Water. Revised edition (Penguin, 1993). Template:ISBN.
• Pisani, Donald J. Water and American Government: The Reclamation Bureau, National Water Policy, and the West, 1902-1935, (University of California Press, 2002).
• Rowley, William D. The Bureau of Reclamation: Origins and Growth to 1945, vol. 1, (US Department of the Interior, 2006).
• Sneddon, Christopher. Concrete Revolution: Large Dams, Cold War Geopolitics, and the US Bureau of Reclamation, (University of Chicago Press, 2015).

External links

• Bureau of Reclamation in the Federal Register
• List of Reclamation projects, dams and powerplants Template:Webarchive
• List of Commissioners Template:Webarchive
• Bureau that Changed the West Template:Webarchive Documentary produced by Idaho Public Television