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The Bureau of Reclamation: Priorities for 2020 and Beyond
Construction on the Navajo-Gallup pipeline project.
Commissioner Burman and state representatives sign Drought Contingency Plan–related agreements at the Hoover Dam spillway house in May 2019.
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rom its roots at the turn of the 20th century, the Bureau of Reclamation has grown to be the nation’s largest water supplier and its second-largest supplier of hydroelectricity. It operates 492 dams, 338 reservoirs, and 53 hydroelectric plants and delivers water to 10 million irrigated acres across the western United States, giving it a foundational role in U.S. agriculture and in the history of the West. Under the leadership of Commissioner Brenda Burman, Reclamation is focusing on modernizing existing infrastructure, expanding storage capabilities, promoting title transfer, and leveraging cutting-edge science and forecasting technology. It has also just released a bold new logo that visually represents the strength of water and of Reclamation’s employees and infrastructure across the West. In this interview, Commissioner Burman gives Municipal Water Leader a panoramic view of Reclamation’s priorities for 2020 and the bold technological and infrastructural means it is pursuing in order to guarantee reliable water supplies in the West for generations to come. Municipal Water Leader: Please tell us about your background and how you came to be commissioner.
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Municipal Water Leader: Who was the commissioner when you were deputy commissioner? Brenda Burman: John Keys recommended me for the position. Then he retired, and I worked for Bill Rinne as acting commissioner and then for Bob Johnson. In all three—John Keys, Bill Rinne and Bob Johnson—I noted the incredible pride they had in Reclamation, in its employees, and in the work it was doing. I’m similarly proud of our work today and of our tremendous employees, who work every day to make reliable water a reality for future generations in the West.
PHOTOS COURTESY OF RENDA CONTRACTING.
Brenda Burman: I am honored to be the 23rd commissioner of the Bureau of Reclamation and to be working for the American people under President Trump and Secretary Bernhardt. It’s a real honor to be in this position. When I look at my background, I think I have been working my whole career to get to this job. I started, oddly enough, with the National Park Service in New Mexico, building trails out in the desert. You realize quickly in the New Mexico desert how exceedingly dry it is. Everything you do has to be calculated around whether there is a water supply and how you can conserve water. That’s where I fell in love with the Southwest and its water issues. After
another stretch with the Park Service at the Grand Canyon, I decided to go to law school and work on water issues. After graduating, I worked first in Wyoming and then in Phoenix for a water and energy firm, Salmon, Lewis & Weldon, where I worked on many natural resource issues, including tribal water settlements. I spent a lot of my early career working on Indian water rights settlements— agreements between neighboring communities that ensured water supply for tribal nations and their neighbors. That was incredible work, full of conflict but also incredible resolutions. That led to working on Capitol Hill for Senator Jon Kyl of Arizona for almost 4 years. We focused not only on Arizona, but on water issues that touched California and the West as a whole. During that time, I forged the relationships that ended up bringing me to the Department of the Interior. I was deputy commissioner at Reclamation back in 2006 and then worked as deputy assistant secretary for water and science. While Interior works across the nation and internationally on important water issues, I’ve always gone back to the western United States—it is a region with special needs, and it’s where I’ve always enjoyed working.
