Bureau's top official wraps up national tour at Grand Coulee Dam

With the face of Grand Coulee Dam as a backdrop Tuesday, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation's top official wrapped up a tour of facilities in celebration of the agency's 120-year history and the 81 years since the first filling of Lake Roosevelt.

Commissioner Camille Calimlim Touton listed Reclamation stats the crowd could be proud of, perhaps part of the purpose of the visit and tour. It's not always popular being the "nation's largest wholesale water supplier" in an era when folks in the Southwest of your 17 western states are running low on water (a situation that is in sight of resolution, she noted later.)

But Reclamation delivers 10 trillion gallons of water to more than 31 million people each year. It owns 491 dams and operates 338 reservoirs across 17 western states, even with half its dams built between 1900 and 1950.

Grand Coulee Dam provides 20 billion kilowatts of electricity worth a half billion dollars annually. It provides water for the irrigation of $1.2 billion of crops grown on 380,000 acres of the Columbia Basin Project, flood control that has prevented some $206 million in flood damage since 1950, stream flow regulation for fish migration, navigation, and recreation.

"But we're more than just concrete and rebar," Touton said. "We are 5,400 people who believe in our mission, who are proud to serve all of you."

"Whether it's folks here or anywhere across the 17 states, you're going to see their passion for the work, because we call these places our homes, too," she said. "I think that's what's really important."

Touton and Columbia–Pacific Northwest Regional Director Jennifer Carrington emphasized Reclamation's partnerships with the Colville and Spokane Tribes, the Army Corps of Engineers, Bonneville Power, and local irrigators.

The Colville Tribes' Chairman Jared Erickson reminded the crowd of mostly Reclamation employees of the losses the dam's construction caused to his people and the subsequent social upheaval among them as a result of the destruction of their way of life.

But Erickson also said he hoped that some of the jobs to come from new funding for Reclamation would help his people.

Through President Joe Biden's Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, Reclamation is investing $8.3 billion over five years for water infrastructure projects, including water purification and reuse, water storage and conveyance, as well as desalination and dam safety. The Inflation Reduction Act is providing an additional $4.6 billion to address historic drought in the West.

Touton had just come from Idaho, where she was given a giant potato to goad her Washington associates. She held up the spud to the Columbia Basin irrigation crowd.

"It says the 'greatest of all taters' so, Columbia Basin Project, I think it's ... game on."