Law of the Rio Chama
Publication Date
1-2011
Document Type
Article
Abstract
Congress established the reclamation program in 1902, and the hundreds of federal water projects built in the twentieth century helped shape the West. Today, the Bureau of Reclamation plays an enormously important role in managing these projects. But with no new big dams to build, the Bureau has been forced to revise its mission to address today's water management challenges, such as stretching finite water supplies and restoring aquatic ecosystems. Through both site-specific enactments and programmatic statutes, Congress in recent years has given the Bureau new authority and direction to address these modern challenges. But Congress has left a significant gap in the Bureau's statutory powers by failing to provide general authority for restoration of ecosystems impaired by reclamation projects. This Article reviews Congress's expressed priorities for the reclamation program since 2002, identifies programmatic statutes intended to help the Bureau address the water issues of today's West, examines the absence of general environmental restoration authority, and concludes with options for legislation through which Congress might provide such authority.
Publisher
Harvard Journal on Legislation
Recommended Citation
Benson, Reed D.. "New Adventures of the Old Bureau: Modern-Day Reclamation Statutes and Congress Unfinished Environmental Business." (2011). https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/uc_rio_chama/21
