The era of big dams and the irrigation and power projects that helped open arid regions of the American West to settlement over the last 85 years is coming to an end.
That prospect is signaled in President Reagan's budget for the Interior Department's Bureau of Reclamation for the fiscal year 1988. It was stated explicitly by Interior Secretary Donald P. Hodel in an interview last week.
It is a view shared by many in and outside the Government, including conservationists, although not necessarily by all Western water interests.
Mr. Hodel said that while he expected political opposition, the era of the big dam was nevertheless drawing to an end because ''the most gigantic projects are already done, or in the process of being built or already rejected on economic or environental grounds.''
He said that projects that might have been approved in the past would now be rejected because of ''budgetary or preservationist impulses.'' Stress on the PracticalContinue reading the main story
He said the new budget made practical and economic sense because it would concentrate money on projects nearing completion rather than spreading out the money on many more projects and delaying the time any of them could be put into use. Mr. Hodel noted that the users of the projects did not start paying back the Government until the projects were completed.
In the President's budget, the $1 billion for the bureau would for the first time be concentrated on a reduced number of priority projects, mostly those near completion, while funds for other projects currently being built by the bureau would be slashed or eliminated.
Fifteen major projects are scheduled to receive more money, the biggest of which is the Central Arizona Project, which would receive $276 million, $70 million more than the previous year. Of 15 other major projects that would lose some or all of their financing, one the biggest losers would be the Garrison Diversion, an irrigation and water supply project in the Dakotas that would go from $33 million in 1987 to $2.5 million in 1988.
But, most important for the future of Western reclamation, planning for future big water projects would virtually come to an end. Reclamation Bureau Role
The nation's long-term fiscal difficulties and the growing challenge to big Federal construction projects on economic as well as environmental grounds also raise questions about the future role, if any, of the Reclamation Bureau, once existing projects are completed. The agency was formed by Congress in 1902 to provide water needed to reclaim the arid West for farms and other human use.
Mr. Hodel emphasized that none of the 67 bureau projects currently under way would be killed.
But the budget eliminates virtually all money for the planning of new projects. Of the 50 projects currently in planning, all but 12 would receive no further funds in the 1988 budget. This means that after all the dams and other major construction efforts under way are completed, the bureau would start no new projects except for those that are ''small and environmentally benign,'' Mr. Hodel said.
After that, the Bureau of Reclamation, which created such engineering marvels as the Hoover and Grand Coulee dams, would concentrate largely on operating and maintaining existing dams and irrigation canals and on managing the water resources of the Colorado basin and other water systems, the Interior Secretary said.
Mr. Hodel said that while he was ''reluctant to cause people personal diffireductions in the bureau's planning staff. ''We cannot justify paying somebody overtime to do the planning for a dam that will never be built,'' he said. Problems With Congress
The Interior Secretary conceded, however, that there might be some political problems getting the new bureau program through Congress.
Senator Quentin N. Burdick, Democrat of North Dakota, the new chairman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, said through a spokesman that the Administration's proposal for water projects was ''very disappointing'' because the Garrison Diversion program was a result of ''a very painful compromise'' reached after long negotiations among Federal and state governments, Canada, irrigigation interests and conservationists. The President's budget proposal ''is not the end of the story,'' he said.
Bureau officials, who asked not to be quoted by name, said that Mr. Hodel had devised the budget plan without seeking first to pave the political road through Congress. One official said he expected that the plan ''would galvanize Western interests to protect an agency created to develop the West.''
Conservationists, while applauding the decision to halt the planning of new projects and saying that the decision to be selective in allocating available funds was sensible, were nevertheless critical of the proposal. Approval and Criticism
''It is obviously desirable to cut down on the number of projects that aren't going anywhere, but it doesn't make any sense either to shift all that money into a couple of ill-conceived projects such as Central Arizona and Central Utah that are a waste of taxpayer money and environmentally destructive,'' said Brent Blackwelder, vice president of the Washington-based Environmental Policy Institute.
''We see no future role for the Bureau of Reclamation - we hope it is headed into the sunset,'' Mr. Blackwelder said, adding that, while ''the bureau can point to some early success in agricultural development of the West, since the 60's and 70's we have seen a horrendous series of totally unnecessary projects.''
Edward R. Osann, director of the National Wildlife Federation's water resources program, said that while the budget did signal the end of the big dam era, ''the era will not end until several billion dollars more is spent on marginal dam projects.'' He added, ''Secretary Hodel is saying 'Let me get the last horses out of the barn before I close the door.' ''Continue reading the main story