Our Klamath Basin Water Crisis
Upholding rural Americans' rights to grow food,
own property, and caretake our wildlife and natural resources.
Our Klamath Basin
Water Crisis
Upholding rural Americans' rights to grow food,
own property, and caretake our wildlife and natural resources.
|
Irrigation districts
describe dealings with BuRec Tam Moore Capital Press Oregon Staff Writer Friday, July 22, 2005 Across the irrigated West, irrigation districts have weighed in on their federal support agency, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation. The message comes in the form of eight case studies assembled this summer by Family Farm Alliance, an association of federal irrigators. The report describes worries that BuRec isn’t replacing the engineers who built the big projects over the past 100 years, creating possible problems as structures wear out and need replacement. It also points to ways that BuRec helped states and local irrigation districts accomplish projects that wouldn’t otherwise be done. “There are some great, great examples of partnership,” said Dan Keppen, the engineer and executive director of the Alliance, who pulled together the report. The document was delivered in June to a National Research Council committee. The U.S. Department of Interior, BuRec’s parent agency, invited the review of how to best manage construction and infrastructure in the 21st century. “Reclamation is a unique agency,” said Keppen, who used to work for BuRec. “There is a good relationship with most of their customers. .... They are sharing costs.” Typical BuRec projects were built with federal dollars, then purchased over time through payback by irrigators. Where the relationship gets difficult is when BuRec bills overhead costs to irrigators, and where local BuRec districts farm out research or design to a technical center in Denver that supports projects across the West. “Western water users find that cost estimates prepared by Reclamation for proposed work are often significantly higher than reasonably anticipated costs,” Keppen said in a transmittal letter. He also criticized BuRec for “an unwillingness” to show the basis for costs on construction, environmental reviews and similar work. One of the success stories is California’s Sacramento River Basin management plan, a joint effort of water contractors, BuRec and California Department of Water resources. Praise came for letting sub- basins develop water conservation plans and “movement away from a ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach.” On the other side of the coin, the Northern Colorado Water Conservancy District wanted to add an outlet to a major reservoir by 2007. After dealing with BuRec’s technical service center since 1999, the district gave up and hired an outside engineer to eliminate massive cost overruns during pre-design. A similar story came from Oregon’s Hermiston Irrigation District, caught in a dam safety upgrade. The project was estimated at $115,000 including engineering design, with 55 percent of the cost attributed to BuRec staff work. However, the Idaho Water Users Association praised BuRec’s Snake River Area office in Boise for keeping operation and maintenance costs of dams and pumping plants below budget. “What it comes down to,” said Keppen, “is those districts have good relationships with area offices.” Tam Moore is based in Medford, Ore. His e-mail address is tmoore@capitalpress.com. |
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