The Bureau of Reclamation’s David Raff: How the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law Funds Aquatic Restoration
Sunrise in reach 1 at the Lower Colorado River Multi-Species Conservation Program’s Laguna conservation area, near Yuma, Arizona.
T
he Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, commonly known as the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, allocates $250 million to the Bureau of Reclamation to fund aquatic restoration projects. This summer, Reclamation will develop a funding opportunity for project selection. Hydro Leader spoke with David Raff, Reclamation’s chief engineer, about the Aquatic Ecosystem Restoration Program’s new funding flows.
David Raff: I started with Reclamation in 2003, working in the Technical Service Center, where I primarily focused on flood hydrology and risk associated with dams. I subsequently worked in the policy office on long-term water resources, sustainability, and climate change and on ensuring that water supplies and demands are in balance. Then I spent some time with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, working on hydrology and hydraulics, before returning to Reclamation in 2016 as the agency’s science advisor. In 2020, I became the chief engineer—a historic position that had been vacant for a couple of decades. I oversee a variety
26 | HYDRO LEADER | October 2021
Hydro Leader: Please give us an overview of Reclamation’s aquatic ecosystem restoration work. David Raff: Reclamation has decades of experience working in aquatic restoration. Our programs over the past 20–30 years include the Trinity River Restoration Program, the Upper Colorado Recovery Implementation Program, the Platte River Recovery Implementation Program, the Lower Colorado River Multi-Species Recovery Program, and the San Joaquin River Restoration Program, to name a few. All these programs have been focused largely on aquatic restoration. Many of our activities are designed to ensure that we are following our Endangered Species Act obligations and addressing other environmental concerns. They focus on restoring rivers, providing spawning habitat, providing habitat for hydroleadermagazine.com
PHOTO BY ALEXANDER STEPHENS, BURAU OF RECLAMATION, LICENSED UNDER CC BY-SA 2.0.
Hydro Leader: Please introduce yourself and tell us how you came to be in your current position.
of directorates, including dam safety and infrastructure, research and development, data management, the Technical Service Center, our power resources office, and the water resources and planning office, where Reclamation houses its WaterSMART grant program.
