News Release Archive

Reclamation Names New Nebraska-Kansas Area Manager

Media Contact: Mark Andersen, (406) 247-7610, mandersen@gp.usbr.gov

For Release: May 17, 2004

The Bureau of Reclamation's Great Plains Regional Director Maryanne Bach today announced the appointment of Alice Johns of Loveland, Colo., as manager of the Bureau of Reclamation's Nebraska-Kansas Area Office.

The area office is in Grand Island, Neb., with a field office in McCook, Neb.

Bach said Johns will be responsible for managing programs and facilities associated with 15 Bureau of Reclamation dams and reservoirs in Nebraska and Kansas. Reclamation facilities in the two states provide water to nearly 300,000 acres of farmland which produce over $275 million worth of crops each year. The reservoirs are also popular recreation areas.

Since 1997 Johns has served as the Resources Manager for Reclamation's Eastern Colorado Area Office in Loveland. In this position she has overseen water rights, planning and water scheduling, water-related contracts and repayment, environmental compliance, integrated pest management, land and recreation resources management, cultural resources, and the water conservation field services program associated with the Colorado-Big Thompson Project in north-central Colorado and the Fryingpan-Arkansas Project in south-central Colorado. Johns was instrumental in the multi-party negotiation of the Colorado River Programmatic Biological Opinion and amendments to the Trinidad Dam and Reservoir Operating Principles, consistent with the Arkansas River Compact Administration.

Johns is a native of central Illinois. She graduated with a bachelor of science degree in watershed science, with high distinction, from Colorado State University in 1982. From 1982 to 1986 she was a hydrologist for the Arapaho and Roosevelt National Forests headquartered in Ft. Collins, Colo. From 1986 until she joined Reclamation, she served as a hydrologist in the Water Resources Division of the National Park Service in Fort Collins, with increasing responsibility for west-wide water rights and instream flow issues.

Bach said Johns will report to her new assignment in late June. She fills the vacancy left by Fred Ore who is now Reclamation's Deputy Director, Operations, in Washington, DC.

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The Bureau of Reclamation is a federal agency under the U.S. Department of the Interior and is the nation's largest wholesale water supplier and second largest producer of hydroelectric power. Our facilities also provide substantial flood control, recreation opportunities, and environmental benefits. Visit our website at https://www.usbr.gov and follow us on Twitter @USBR; Facebook @bureau.of.reclamation; LinkedIn @Bureau of Reclamation; Instagram @bureau_of_reclamation; and YouTube @reclamation.

Relevant Link:

Great Plains Nebraska-Kansas Area Office