The Bureau of Reclamation’s 100th anniversary celebration is occurring under a cloud of controversy. The agency originally created to “reclaim” the western desert as agricultural land for small family farmers has been rendered virtually ineffective and the agency has become one of the main purveyors of pork to western agribusiness. Let’s end the century of subsidies.

Even though the era of big dams is over, the Bureau continues to subsidize water users in 17 western states by providing pennies on the dollar for numerous dams and irrigation systems. The bureau operates with a blind devotion to their original mission of populating the Wild West through billions of dollars of water subsidies.

The main group benefiting from the Bureau's programs is a small collection of subsidy-rich irrigators. The Bureau helps fund irrigators' projects through interest-free loans with repayment terms that extend up to 40 years. On top of that grace period, if the Bureau decides that the repayment price for water exceeds their calculation of the irrigator's “ability to pay,” then the Bureau will then absorb up to 50% of the initial cost.

In practice, repayment is often delayed for more than 40 years due to lengthy project construction periods during which the irrigator's debts are exempt, regardless of whether or not they are already using water diverted from the river. Repayment is often reduced still further through creative accounting methods where miscellaneous revenues from other commercial activities are credited to the project and many project costs are attributed to non-irrigation uses.

The Bureau's mission to invigorate the West by making farmland from arid desert conditions may have made some sense in the early 1900s. However, the rapidly growing West now has a vibrant economy built on technology, financial, and other service industries that have all but made the agency's dam-building days an historical footnote.

The Bureau of Reclamation's continued pursuit of antiquated policies is flushing taxpayer dollars down the drain with the West's precious water. To mark its 100-year anniversary, it is time to change the way the Bureau does business.

Contact: Keith Ashdown
(202) 546-8500 x110