Dear HCN,
Marc Reisner’s recent
story explained that some things have changed dramatically at the
Bureau of Reclamation. Commissioner Dan Beard has little in common
with his dam-building predecessors such as Floyd Dominy. Reisner
portrayed Beard – accurately, I think – as someone firmly committed
to making Reclamation more responsible to the environment and the
American public.
On many issues, however, Beard’s
Reclamation has had a tough time making big changes. It has
suspended efforts to write rules addressing “water spreading,” the
illegal use of federal project water (HCN, 10/31/94). It has
revised its draft water conservation guidelines to be more friendly
to irrigators. And it has delayed Glen Canyon Dam operational
changes which could restore the eroding beaches of the Colorado
River (HCN, 3/20/95).
It’s hard to blame Beard
for these retreats. The entire Interior Department has been
immobilized by the recent changes in Congress and by the “War on
the West” rhetoric spouted by resource user groups. Beard, like
others at Interior who would change the way we manage public
resources, has been handcuffed by politics. In fact, Beard may have
the toughest reform job of all.
Water, the
resource his agency manages, is mostly controlled by state laws. In
every Western state and at the federal level, the politics of water
are dominated by economic user groups. Irrigators, cities, ranchers
and hydropower interests call the shots. Environmental groups and
recreational river users haven’t been a major force, except in a
few cases. We’re beginning to change that, but we’ve got a long way
to go.
We now must change the political
environment in which the Bureau operates. We need broader and
stronger support for instream uses of water, so that the Bureau
must serve environmental, tribal and recreational interests as well
as irrigation and hydropower. Only then can we expect Reclamation
to manage water for the benefit of the public and the rivers of the
West.
Reed D.
Benson
Portland,
Oregon
The writer is
reclamation issues director of
WaterWatch.
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Change at the top is just a beginning.
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