This looks like a great CRS report from Charles V. Stern and Anna E. Normand on the U.S. Bureau of Geclamation, the foremost Federal water agency in the Western USA: 'Bureau of Reclamation: History, Authorities, and Issues for Congress'.
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Download CRS_USBR_History_Congress_3April2020
Summary
The Bureau of Reclamation (Reclamation), an agency within the Department of the Interior (DOI), is responsible for the management and development of many of the large federal dams and water diversion structures in the 17 conterminous states west of the Mississippi River. Reclamation is the country’s largest wholesaler of water and the country’s second-largest producer of hydropower (behind the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers). Reclamation facilities store up to 140 million acre-feet of water, which serves more than 10 million acres of farmland and 31 million municipal and industrial customers. In addition to water supplies, Reclamation facilities provide flood control, recreation, and fish and wildlife benefits in many parts of the West.
Congress created Reclamation in the Reclamation Act of 1902. The act authorized the Secretary of the Interior to construct irrigation works in western states to “reclaim” arid lands for agricultural purposes. Subsequent laws have built on and in some cases altered Reclamation’s authorities, and Congress has authorized more than 180 individual Reclamation projects. Reclamation projects are unique in a number of ways. Among other things, these projects operate according to a beneficiary pays principle in which project beneficiaries must reimburse the government for their allocated share of project costs (some costs are considered federal in nature, with no reimbursement required). Reclamation projects also must obtain state water rights and operate according to state water law. As a result, state law and related considerations play a relatively large role in Reclamation project operations and management.
The earliest Reclamation projects were single purpose and focused primarily on irrigation development. Later projects were larger and more complex, and they operated for multiple authorized purposes. Reclamation constructed its largest and most well-known projects (such as the California Central Valley Project, Hoover Dam, and Glen Canyon Dam on the Colorado River and Grand Coulee Dam and the Columbia River Basin Project in Washington) after the beginning of the Great Depression. Congress chose to fund most of these large projects through the General Fund of the Treasury rather than the Reclamation Fund, which Congress had established under the 1902 act to finance most Reclamation projects. A number of events precipitated the gradual slowdown of Reclamation’s construction program beginning in the 1970s, and the bureau has constructed few new Reclamation projects (most of them smaller in scale) since that time.
Reclamation has evolved considerably since its creation, and it remains an agency in transition. At Congress’s direction, Reclamation has increasingly been involved in projects whose primary purpose is not reclaiming land for agricultural irrigation purposes. Some of Reclamation’s new authorities include financial support for water reuse and recycling projects (i.e., the Title XVI Program), grants for water and energy conservation efforts (i.e., the WaterSMART Grants Program), and funding for rural water projects and water infrastructure associated with congressionally authorized Indian water rights settlements. How to balance new priorities with the upkeep of existing federal projects, and whether to facilitate new project development (and, if so, how), is a major consideration in discussions related to the bureau’s future. These questions are particularly significant given Reclamation’s nexus with state and local water resources development.
Congress regularly considers legislation related to individual Reclamation projects, as well as broader questions related to Reclamation and its mission. Persistent and recurring drought in the West, along with the 2016 enactment of Reclamation’s first significant new authority in decades for water storage project construction (Section 4007 of the Water Infrastructure Improvements for the Nation Act [WIIN Act; P.L. 114-322]), has increased attention on the bureau’s future direction. Congress may consider a number of issues related to Reclamation, such as how (or if) the bureau should be involved in new water resource project construction, how to address aging federal water facilities, and the status of proposed and ongoing Indian water rights settlements, among other things.
Enjoy!
"The worst of all deceptions is self-deception." - Plato
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