News Release Archive

Jason Wagner selected as Reclamation's 2020 Engineer of the Year

Media Contact: Peter Soeth, 303-445-3615, psoeth@usbr.gov

For Release: February 12, 2020

Jason WagnerWASHINGTON - Jason Wagner, P.E., a civil engineer, is the Bureau of Reclamation's 2020 Engineer of the Year for his work on designing fish passage structures around the West. He will be recognized by the National Society of Professional Engineers at an awards ceremony held in Washington, D.C., on February 14, 2020.

“Jason’s work has been important to Reclamation, its partners and the American public,” said Reclamation Commissioner Brenda Burman. “His cutting-edge work as an engineer has led to projects that protect fish while ensuring water delivery commitments.”

Wagner is recognized for his work on fish passage design. For the past five years, he has served as the technical design lead for the novel Cle Elum Dam Fish Passage Facility in Washington, a project that involves more than 200 engineers, scientists, architects, and hydraulic modelers. The project united federal, state, city, tribal, agricultural, and environmental organizations to support the restoration of sockeye salmon in the Yakima River basin. The total project cost is estimated at about $200 million.

He has also led or played a significant role in the designs of the Battle Creek Salmon and Steelhead Restoration Project, Coleman National Fish Hatchery facility improvements, Link River Dam fish ladder and Nimbus Dam Fish Hatchery fish ladder. Additionally, he has served on various senior level planning reviews related to the San Joaquin River Restoration and Klamath Basin Fish Screening and Passage.

Wagner is a member of the National Society of Professional Engineers and is registered as a project management professional.

Reclamation would also like to recognize the 2020 Regional Engineer of the Year, Jay Bytheway. He made great contributions to Reclamation through value engineering. Value engineering studies show significant ways to improve performance, reliability, quality, safety and life-cycle costs of projects within Reclamation. On projects Bytheway has participated in, the value engineering studies have shown a maximum projected savings of $74 million. He works for Reclamation in Interior Region 7: Upper Colorado Basin in Salt Lake City, Utah.

To learn more about the state-of-the-art helix design at the Cle Elum Dam Fish Passage Facility, watch the video at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jj3OVV8jXPU.

Jason Wagner is standing at the construction project for the Cle Elum Fish Passage.

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