U.S. Water News Online
DENVER -- The new chief of the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation said that water stored by Western dams must be used as efficiently as possible given the nation's energy troubles.
John Keys III, sworn into the post in July, told a meeting of the U.S. Society on Dams that water passing through the 457 dams in the West must be used several times over, for things such as recreation, power, and irrigation.
``We will wring every drop of water-use out of our projects,'' Keys said. ``We can use water four, five, or more times before it gets to its ultimate destination.''
Keys said there would be no major changes in the Bureau of Reclamation, which monitors the West's dams to ensure arid and semiarid areas year-round irrigation. It focuses on resource management and protection of the water.
Echoing calls from Interior Secretary Gale Norton, Keys said the bureau wants more power put in the hands of the states.
He said that was one of the problems in Klamath Falls, Ore., where farmers clashed with the federal government this year after a drought left water scarce. Oregon, which should oversee water rights, has not yet divvied up rights in most of the Klamath Basin, leaving it unclear who is entitled to what water, Keys said.
``State water rights is one of the things that fell apart,'' he said.
He promised a renewed focus on dam safety, saying that 50 percent of the West's dams were built more than 50 years ago and only 10 percent were constructed with state-of-the-art technology.
He said the bureau had assigned $75 million in fiscal 2002 for dam safety.
The Bureau of Reclamation is an agency of the Department of the Interior. It delivers water to 31 million people for agricultural, municipal, industrial, and domestic uses. It is the nation's largest supplier of water.
Keys, who was an airline pilot, was living in Moab, Utah, at the time of his nomination to the federal post.
Keys received a master's degree from Brigham Young University and began working for the bureau in 1964 when he took a job on the Central Utah Project.
Return to the U.S. Water News Archives page Or Return to the U.S. Water News Homepage
Editor@uswaternews.com
*Your Name:
*Your Email:
*Friend's Email:
Use a comma to separate e-mail addresses:
*Your Comments:
Hi, I thought you might like to read this article.
*Required Fields