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Bureau of Reclamation rolls out details of Western Water Initiative 5/29/03
The Bureau of Reclamation recently released a proposal to focus the agency's resources on avoiding and resolving conflicts in an era of rapidly increasing demands on scarce water supplies in the West. Called "Water 2025: Preventing Crisis and Conflict in the West," the plan fleshes out the broadly drawn "Western Water Initiative" proposal that the Interior Department sent to Congress in February as part of the Bureau' s FY 04 budget request. The budget seeks $11 million to get the plan underway. Reclamation Commissioner John Keys outlined the Water 2025 proposal in a May 2 meeting with western water interests and environmental groups in Washington. He said the basic purpose of the proposal is to focus public attention on problems that cause water conflicts in the West and then to establish a framework for addressing problems and conflicts before they reach the crisis point. The plan is intended as a guide for managing the West's water supplies for the next quarter century.
Commissioner Keys said that while the Water 2025 proposal does not reject the idea of building new water storage, it does not "concentrate on it." He said new storage would be considered along with conservation, desalinization and increased efficiency as tools for expanding supply. He added that the goal is to cut the cost of desalinization in half by the year 2020. The Commissioner acknowledged that federal environmental laws, including the Endangered Species Act, are sources of water conflicts in the West. He said that the Water 2025 proposal does not envision amending those laws. Instead, the Bureau will emphasize working collaboratively to meet both the requirements of the laws and the needs of water users. Bennett Raley, the Assistant Secretary of the Interior for Water and Science, said that the Department plans to put the Water 2025 proposal "on the road" in the series of regional sessions to hear comments from citizens, interest groups and state agencies. The effort will be kicked off in Denver on June 6, when Interior Secretary Gale Norton will be meeting with groups, including The Family Farm Alliance, to discuss the proposal. The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee had schedule a May 6 hearing on the plan, but that hearing has been postponed, probably until the week of May 12, staff said. Interior officials said that they do not believe the Water 2025 plan will require legislation to implement because it relies on existing programs and authorities. A copy of the Interior Department's Water 2025 plan is available
on the Bureau website www.usbr.gov. |