Elevated from the comments, observations from former Reclamation manager Doug Blatchford:
WHEN I joined the Reclamation team in 2005 as the River Operation Manager on the Colorado River, part of my duties was to prepare a business plan to direct future business decisions based on the operations budget and services required (like delivering water to 20 million people). Part of the business plan was succession planning; I estimated it took at least 5 years to hire a replacement for say, the oracle data base manager, and that hire would shadow the retiree to affect a smooth transition. Just letting experienced (20, 30, 40 yr employees…) retire without planning was difficult enough inside the Federal system, let alone just taking a wrecking ball and eliminating 40 percent of the work force.
So what could happen? What kept me up at night was mostly public safety, meaning what could go wrong that would threaten life and limb because of faulty operations, much like managing an air traffic control system, except less dynamic. Imagine :
–an overworked field crew in 120 degree heat installs the a gage shaft encoder that reads the lake going up, instead of going down as it should
–screwing up the distribution of flows at Imperial Dam to Arizona, California, and/or excess flow to Mexico
–not having the modeling staff to provide the 5-yr probabilistic forecast
–reduced skill level in the forecast from CBRFC
–foregoing special requests to raise or lower Havasu water surface elevations, such as the parade of lights
–not being able to respond quickly enough to dynamic operations during a monsoon or hurricane event, and accidentally releasing more water /and or not retaining the water behind the dams, or worse, an atomospheric river that hits a higher water surface elevation at Havasu that pulses the lake over the top of the dam
and on and on and on …not to mention staff moral, which is a from a dedication based on service, less on monetary incentive
I wholeheartedly agree with Doug’s comments as my own experiences was detailed in his summary. I came on board in 1992 and was hired by Hoover Dam as their ‘outside man’ in supporting communications, computers, control systems and ‘other duties as assigned’ as we say in the government. One of those duties was supporting the Water Operations Group. That was a side line that actually devoured me and eventually became my main tasking. It was a unique position that was technically and physically challenging. The position took me everywhere on the Lower Colorado River interfacing with different stakeholders.
This is the type of job that you learn hands-on in dealing with other agencies on their own turf and you are measuring the water they get from the river. You don’t learn these skills in school. The term for this is ‘institutional knowledge’. This is what Doug was talking about. It takes time to pass on these skills to your successor. For mine, it took half a dozen years before he felt comfortable.
One thing that Doug didn’t touch on was the ‘ownership’ that staff took in their positions. It was a pleasure being part of that. How do you maintain that level of expertise during a Reduction in Force RIF or early buyout. One month they are there – the next month they are gone. The knowledge and skillset walking out the door with with them. I hear the same story with my old cohorts at Hoover Dam.
This is not unique to Reclamation. You will hear the same with our counterparts in the Corps of Engineers or the USGS. I’m sure that other Federal Agencies are wondering how they can continue to support their core missions.
Cutting costs has always been something we’ve contended within the Federal Government. The term most often used is ‘right sizing’. The actions used being the RIF and/or Buyout. It will be an interesting time ahead.
Well…It’s begun…
https://www.latimes.com/environment/story/2025-03-03/trump-doge-staff-cuts-reclamation-california
John Enstminger would typically compare Basin States’s negotiating vs letting the Federal government make policy decisions as “using a scalpel vs a sludgehammer.” I always thought this was a true statement, and that’s what is going on now.
There is always room for improvement, especially in government. Unfortunately, its more complex than one would expect, especially coming in from the private sector such as what is going on now. Sometimes private sector actors have a sense of hubris, maybe because of the long hours, or freedom to maneuver in business that is comparatively unfettered compared to the government. What the private sector does not understand is the depth of knowledge that is inherently governmental, or institutional, that comes from a non-transitory work environment. It’s easy to tear something apart—anyone with the authority and power can take a wrecking ball to government, given the backing of the White House (assuming its legal). But will they know how to put it back together? I seriously doubt the DOGERS understand the Law of the River, the rules embedded in RiverWare to simulate the Colorado River system, or even the daily interactions between critical business processes that make operations work.
To better understand how River Operations functioned as an organization, Reclamation hired a Business Process consultant whose mission was to interview everyone, determine exactly what they were doing, then make recommendations on how to make the organization more efficient. The end result was a flow chart that when printed would take up the entire wall in my office. And yes, the tummy tuck being done in Yuma to determine how much water to pump from drainage wells was identified as something that needed to be fixed. However (for the most part) each leg of the overall business process came about because of a legitimate business driver, which management needed to understand. The tummy tuck was eventually replaced by a RiverWare model, I believe.
CORRECTION — that was “tummy rub” not “tummy tuck”
In 2023, I issued a letter to President Biden on how best to improve water management in the Colorado River system; If anyone is interested, the concepts of ‘Down 3 in 23’ still apply:
https://1drv.ms/b/c/5b0730e69af125f4/EfQl8ZrmMAcggFvbBwAAAAABaIVh2ayMFvrcNGwps7ZGLQ?e=lMebQe
What wasn’t addressed in ‘Down 3 in 23’ was how administrative aspects of the Federal Government could be improved, within the context of Reclamation. By administrative aspects, I specifically refer to (1) Procurement, (2) Human Resources, and (3) the Equal Employment Office.
1) Procurement.
As I understand the need for a competitive contract environment, and to follow existing laws, rules, and regulations, the ability to procure even basic services often became mired in lengthy, unwieldy processes that formed a roadblock to contracting almost anything.
For example, at Dam Safety conferences and workshops, it was always recommended that contracts were in place to procure material in the event of a dam failure. The instructor would cite a case where, without a contract in place, the contracting officer would say “….just go ahead and let the dam fail. Then we’ll have an emergency on our hands and then I can authorize the contract.”
For example, we had an ongoing service contract for research and development of RiverWare, a highly specialized service provided by the highly efficient, trusted, very well respected, very well managed, Center for Decision Support for Water and Environmental Systems (CADSWES). CADSWES was excellent; every dollar spent optimized the efficiency of our operations, optimizing taxpayer expenditure. Given the complexity and nature of this procurement there really was no competition and as such, the CADSWES contract was a sole source, direct hire. This required a sole source justification, which at times was still scrutinized and possibly rejected by a contract officer, oblivious to the need or importance of this type of service. If rejected by the contract officer, the next step was up the chain of command, always dicey in a politized environment such as Reclamation. Ultimately a short, curt call from the director would move the contract officer to action.
Funny…I have a fond memory of receiving an email on my crackberry requesting an approval from the director of CADWES at 3 am one morning, after getting home and crashing on the sofa. “Approved!” I shot back—it just blew her away.
Loved reading this Doug. When you mentioned Procurement, the little voice in my head was rolling in the aisles. The mindset of the contracts officer is to ‘save every penny’. However, the substituted item being cheaper up front was always much more expensive to maintain (in additional man hours) and quite often would prove to be the weak link in the systems we maintained. I wish that I had a buck for every time I had to write a detailed justification statement in order to get the exact item that I needed. It was invaluable having the RD’s support in these matters as a bean counter’s mindset wasn’t open minded enough in some cases. Fighting little wars like this was not only common within DoI but was prevalent in DoD in my previous career.
The other recommendation you noted was the need for a Water Tzar. Absolutely spot on. I’m thinking about the history of the Colorado River Compact here. It took the Commerce Secretary (Herbert Hoover) to force the basin state’s representatives to sit down to the table at Bishops Lodge and hammer out their differences. The irony being the agreement being signed in the bridal suite. It’s been anything but a happy union. We need a person appointed at the federal level to oversee and guide the ‘stakeholders’ (I know that you would appreciate this term). Great points all, Doug.
HI Dave!
I see I have a comrade.
This passage from Alexander Solzhenitsyn’s Gulag often reminds me a bit of current events.:
“The [Communist Party], which claimed to be leading a workers’ utopia, systematically eroded its own foundations by eliminating its own best and brightest, leaving only those too fearful or too complicit to resist. Ultimately, this cycle of betrayal and repression contributed to the [ USSR’s] long-term instability and moral
decay.”
[Substitute your own]
I have a two- or three-page ditty written up for HR and EEO, but an internal debate is going on if it’s really necessary before I hit “send.” It goes without saying that the extent and depth of cultural depravity was something I’ve never experienced before and hope never to experience again. In a technical, engineering organization such as Reclamation, a merit-acracy is absolutely necessary, versus DEI hires and DEI promotions.
Regarding waste, fraud, and abuse, I never really saw much of this at Reclamation, except on occasion. Before the pandemic I always thought that extent of travel was too wasteful versus having meetings via zoom. Although I understand that while negotiating, its best to do that in person.
Here’s a funny (and wasteful) travel story that occurred to me sometime in 2006:
It was Thursday afternoon; I was sitting at my desk, on the slide to Friday and the weekend when I normally caught up on unfinished business, such as what needs to be done next week.
The phone rings.
I pick up.
I’m told that I need to be in Washington, DC tomorrow at 9 am to give a presentation on the Colorado River. It’s in Balston, Virginia, and “that’s all I know.” Click.
I call my wife and tell her I wont be home and that I have to travel out to Washington DC at the last minute. In the words of Mary Chapin Carpenter, there was just a “silence, you could cut with a knife. Say it was only a dream”…nightmare, whatever.
Now, the decree came down that all Federal employees had to use the Federal travel agency to
book all travel. Some of us were just booking flights on Southwest Airlines because it was easier and more efficient.
So I go through the proper channels, that is, to the administrative assistant who looks like he/she was a beaten mule ready to die any minute behind his/her computer screen. The assistance tells me that there is no “Balston Virginia.” Frantic, I start googling “Balston Virginia,” only to discover that there is a place called “Balston Common “ in Alexandria. It happened to be adjacent the National Science Foundation, and going on a hunch, I decided: “ this has to be it!”
So I tell the administrative assistant to book travel to Alexandria, and I get the travel orders: United Airlines, Las Vegas to Chicago O’Hare, Chicago to Pittsburg, Pittsburgh to Washington. ETA was oh dark thirty at some ridiculously expensive hotel.
So that evening I board the plane for Chicago, get to O’Hare, and wouldn’t you know it? Bad weather on the East Coast, flight is cancelled. It’s drop off day in O’Hare, as there is no one at the government travel agency that will answer the phone, to book another flight. I go up the gate attendant and ask how to get to Washington, she looks at me, laughs, and walks off. It’s about 10:00 pm and there is no one around.
So I decide to show some initiative…. I remember from my private industry days that Southwest flew from Midway to Baltimore/Washington. Sure enough, a flight was leaving in a few hours, I book the flight, and take a $$$ cab ride from O’Hare to Midway. I get to Baltimore, rent the only vehicle available, a windowless utility van, and drive it into Washington to the hotel. I get there at 3 am and have to be up at 6 am to get arrive at the National Science Foundation on time.
When I arrive at the NSF, I poke around looking for a meeting or place where other gov execs are gathering, and end up in a conference room on the 2nd or 3 rd floor, where I bump into the director of research and development from Denver. I realize that I had actually gotten to the right place, which was a large conference room with tables arranged in a typical horse shoe pattern. I was speaker 3 or 4, and after listening to several other presentations, I give the standard Colorado River System presentation. “ The basin is divided into the Upper and Lower Basin, this is how it operates, yada yada yada. “ All I remember is that the presentation was a huge hit, and apparently it was what the audience was looking for. There was a lady sitting to my right, that –after the presentation—threw up her arms and said “Finally!.” I was just happy that she was pleased with the standard pitch.
Afterwards the director of R&D hears about the travel adventure, and admonishes that I should get out of Washington and back to the airport before Friday afternoon traffic begins to snarl. I drive the drug van back to Baltimore Washington, catch the flight to Las Vegas, and was home before midnight.
On Monday…..I was duly chewed out for not using the Government Travel Service. The travel voucher had exceptions for everything,… the cab ride, the rental van, the change in air carrier service, you name it.
Then the kicker: reason for travel—THE WHITE HOUSE