We’re starting to see dimly the outlines of what it means for the federal government to no longer be a reliable partner in western water management. Here’s Annie Snider and Camille Von Kaenel on what’s happening in California’s Reclamation operations:
DOGE’s cuts are already hurting Reclamation’s ability to move water through a sprawling system of pumps, canals and reservoirs to roughly a third of the state’s farmland — and impeding the agency’s ability to ratchet up deliveries in line with Trump’s demand, the people said.
And this, which should make the rest of us across the west extremely nervous:
The firing of probationary employees hit Reclamation’s California office particularly hard because it had staffed up over the past year to fill what had been a 30 percent vacancy rate. Now, Reclamation as a whole is drawing up plans for a 40 percent reduction in staffing on orders from DOGE, the three people said.
The federal government does stuff in water management and so many other places that we’ve optimized entire human and infrastructural systems around. What happens when the federal government steps away, is no longer the reliable partner on whom we’ve come to depend?
Again, this is not “They shouldn’t do that!” rhetoric. This is a call to my water management community: how can we prepare to blunt the worst impact of this shitshow on our ability get water to our headgates and taps?
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 requred (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 a 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 probablistic 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 accidentallly 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 form a dedication based on service, less on monetary incentive
@Doug…It’s worse than you think. Staffing in today’s economy is a nightmare. Very few that bid on a federal job in our line of work is fully qualified and if they do accept the position, they need a minimum of 18 months to pick up the skill set that makes them productive. Our crew downriver is a prime example. Always shorthanded and always ‘looking for a few good souls’. Once we have that special person for a year or two, they decide that life in the Mohave Desert isn’t their cup of tea and move on to Hawaii or back east. Back to square one.
Most people don’t realize that someone off the street just can’t waltz in and take up the slack. It takes time to acquire the institutional knowledge to know the workings of the river. Funny thing Doug, the only people I know in the organization now I can count on one hand and they are close to retirement.
The same can be said on the ‘Dams Side’ of the house. Recruitment is bad. Retention is worse. No body wants to work and it looks to be universal.
Just my two cents (another obsolete term) Dave
HI Dave–
Good to hear from you again, as you were the best of the best…you saved my ass on innumerable occasions just by doing your job…and yes, your comments do not surprise me. I do recall the employment retention issues in Blythe, and reaching out to local colleges for recruits, the difficulty of retaining solid workers, and so on.
I cant believe it’s been 20 years since I was brought on at Reclamation, and now that I’m running a successful water resource engineering business with happy clients I can open up a bit online without major concerns for retribution…I was thinking I should resend Down 3 in 23 to this administration, but with a twist: here are my business recommendations as well. I’ve been contacted by a ghost writer and have been thinking about adding another chapter to Cadillac Desert.
20 years ago I found Reclamation a land of extremes…as a water resource engineer how could I not take an opportunity to work on 12% of the continental United States watershed, yet how could I walk into an insane asylum? Bob Johnson summarized it at my first RMC meeting: “We finally found someone with the courage to come to work for ……[Reclamation], as he introduced me to entire management team.
When I interviewed for the position, it took over 6 months to make an offer of employment, a full day of interviewing, a presentation to Boulder Canyon, and vetting by the Upper Basin, only to find that I was the only candidate left applying for this unique position within the government. Opening up the position to the “outside” to attract business acumen was the government’s way of saying “we cant find anyone else.” And here I thought this was a meritocracy and that my licensures, education, and experience mattered.