Number: 1990-07
WHEREAS, the Bureau of Reclamation was established as an agency of the Department of the Interior in 1902 to promote the settlement of the arid West by providing federally-assisted irrigation to family farms; and
WHEREAS, in 1987 the Bureau of Reclamation and the Assistant Secretary of the Interior for Water and Science announced that the Bureau had accomplished its original mission; and
WHEREAS, the Bureau proposed a change in mission to take into account current needs and environmental sensitivities, including improved reservoir management, water conservation, toxic waste cleanup and groundwater management; and
WHEREAS, the Bureau also sought to continue the funding and construction of several traditional water resource development projects currently underway, such as the Central Utah Project, while making little commitment to its proposed new missions; and
WHEREAS, the Bureau has signed new 40-year contracts for the delivery of water from the Friant Unit of the Central Valley Project, continuing to dewater the San Joaquin River for many miles, without first preparing an environmental impact statement; and
WHEREAS, the Bureau is continuing to operate Glen Canyon Dam IN a manner that has been found to inflict substantial damage to the natural and recreational resources of Grand Canyon National Park downstream; and
WHEREAS, the Bureau has recently recommended a new project to divert 300,000 acre-feet of water from the Columbia River to irrigate 87,000 acres of land for the benefit of fewer than 44 landowners at a cost of $300 million, and disrupting fish and wildlife restoration measures in the Columbia Basin; and
WHEREAS, the Bureau’s repeated misallocations of project costs and lax interpretations of law have resulted in the underpricing of irrigation water, leading to increased demand and wasteful use of water and resulting in widespread environmental damage from water diversions and contaminated irrigation runoff, including rising salinity levels, groundwater depletion and degradation, water pollution, loss of fish and wildlife habitat, loss of recreational opportunities, threats to endangered species and wholesale alteration of many watercourses; and
WHEREAS, some 40% of the lands provided with subsidized irrigation water by the Bureau regularly produce crops determined to be in surplus by the Secretary of Agriculture; and
WHEREAS, the National Wildlife Federation has repeatedly called for the reform of the federal water resources development programs, including:
- greater financial contributions from beneficiaries of new projects;
- elimination of federal subsidies for irrigation and drainage;
- improved management of existing reservoirs to meet environmental needs;
- improved planning and evaluation procedures for new projects; and
- concurrent and proportionate mitigation for the damages to wildlife habitat resulting from water project construction and operation; and
WHEREAS, while notable progress has been made by the Corps of Engineers in several of these areas, the Bureau has lagged far behind; and
WHEREAS, with the passage of the Reclamation Reform Act of 1982 (RRA), Congress sought to remedy certain abuses in the administration of the Reclamation program that lead to excessive use of subsidized water by large corporate farms; and
WHEREAS, the Bureau has failed to implement the RRA as intended, allowing huge corporate farming operations to continue to receive subsidized irrigation water, and failing to exercise its full authority to achieve greater water conservation throughout the Reclamation program; and
WHEREAS, this continuing pattern of mistaken policies and misallocation of resources reflects an institutional failing which may be remedied by the transfer of the Bureau’s functions to an entity or entities less subject to manipulation by water development interests; and
WHEREAS, “Blueprint for the Environment”, prepared by 18 national conservation organizations during 1988, recommended a Presidential Commission to review the status of the Bureau of Reclamation to identify contemporary missions, if any, for which the Bureau is uniquely suited, and to evaluate the potential transfer of Bureau projects and responsibilities to the states, local sponsors and other federal agencies; and
WHEREAS, no action has been taken by the Administration to implement this recommendation;
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the National Wildlife Federation in annual meeting assembled March 15-18, 1990, in Denver, Colorado, urges Congress to consider legislation providing for the orderly termination of the Bureau of Reclamation, including provision for responsible management of existing structures, equitable repayment of costs to the Treasury and full compliance with all environmental statutes and existing environmental agreements.