from the
Four Corners Construction Office

Cutter Lateral Reach 21 Water Treatment Plant

By Barbara Crockett, P.E., CH2M

The Cutter Lateral Reach 21 Water Treatment Plant construction is nearing completion and is scheduled to begin delivering safe, clean drinking water to communities in the eastern portion of the Navajo Reservation and the southwestern corner of the Jicarilla Apache Reservation later this year. The water treatment process is designed to remove inorganic, organic, and microbial contaminants in accordance with Federal Safe Drinking Water Act regulations for the protection of public health.

Water conveyed from Navajo Reservoir to Cutter Reservoir near Bloomfield, New Mexico will be pumped through a series of 2 pumping plants to the treatment plant, where it will be initially treated by clarification and filtration. This treatment removes small particles and microorganisms before it is disinfected and distributed to the receiving communities by the Navajo Tribal Utility Authority. The small particles and microorganisms that are removed, referred to as “solids,” will be trucked to a nearby landfill to be disposed of properly. The new water treatment plant includes a process operation building, a control room, administrative offices, a laboratory, and maintenance facilities. The state-of-the-art treatment plant has been designed to treat 3.5 million gallons per day initially (Phase 1) and can be expanded to 5.4 million gallons per day to meet future demands (Phase 2). Water from the project will be used for municipal, industrial, and domestic purposes.

from the
Albuquerque Area Office

Monitoring Open-Water Evaporation from Reclamation Reservoirs

By Melissa Romero, Albuquerque Area Office of Public Affairs

Through collaboration within the Bureau of Reclamation and local partners, the Albuquerque Area Office is experimenting with usage of innovative tracking methods for one of the largest consumptive uses of water in the Southwestern United States: open-water evaporative losses. These projects are aimed at helping water managers better understand and measure evaporation for day-to-day reservoir operations, and ultimately support evaporation suppression efforts. Establishing evaporation rates and understanding total reservoir losses due to evaporation is key to detecting overall available water supply. Additionally, detailed tracking of depletions is critical to Reclamation’s real-time water management and ability to balance the needs of stakeholders, especially during droughts. Andrew Gelderloos, Hydrologist with AAO's Water Management Division shares,

"These projects are a result of the mindset central to Reclamation’s work; every drop of water matters, even the upward drops we cannot see. It is certainly impressive to experience the level of collaboration required to address such complex and dynamic issues working alongside well-established experts and innovators."

To address this vital responsibility, current initiatives merge deployment with testing of advanced technologies, including a modernized floating evaporation pan used to improve concurrent evaporation monitoring. Beginning in 2018, these instruments have been installed in the Rio Grande system at Cochiti Lake, Elephant Butte and Caballo Reservoirs, as well as at Lake Powell in the Colorado Basin. In support of Indian Water Rights Settlements, future deployment is also planned at Zuni Salt Lake within the Pueblo of Zuni in western New Mexico. Unlike traditional “Class A” pans in widespread use on most reservoirs, this redesigned pan experiences corresponding conditions much like the reservoir itself and similar to the eddy covariance towers used in measuring the movement of moisture in the atmosphere above a reservoir. Measurements from floating evaporation pans are used to calibrate evaporation data from several satellites, including Landsat, Modis, and EcoSTRESS, which provide reservoir readings at varying spatial and temporal scales.

Floatovoltaics installation at a town water treatment facility in Walden, Colorado. Reclamation photo

Another study underway involves evaluation of both obstacles and opportunities for floating photovoltaic arrays on Reclamation reservoirs. Often referred to as floatovoltaics, this formation of solar panels is installed on water bodies in an effort to suppress evaporation by removing surface insolation. Reclamation is currently evaluating the state of the science. Specifically, this includes examining seven obstacles to greater floatovoltaics implementation at additional reservoirs, and conducting evaluations based on potential costs and feasibility. The team from the Albuquerque Area Office is optimistic this technology holds great promise for power generation as well as conservation.

AAO supports these real-time evaporation monitoring projects through funding opportunities with Reclamation’s Science and Technology Program, the Upper Colorado Basin Region’s Operations Fund, and in partnership with funding from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Albuquerque District. Many projects include joint efforts with the Upper Colorado Basin Regional Office, Denver’s Technical Services Center, the University of New Mexico, New Mexico State University, the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and the Desert Research Institute. The project team from the AAO includes Dagmar Llewellyn, Andrew Gelderloos and David Park, as well as Brent Tanzy of the Power Resources Office at Elephant Butte Reservoir.

from the
Power Office

New Security Response Force ensures Glen Canyon Dam’s safety and security

By Glen Canyon Field Division

In June 2019, the Glen Canyon Field Division was the first facility in the Upper Colorado Basin Region to transition to a highly trained Security Response Force. The Security Response Force’s mission is to ensure the safety and protection of Glen Canyon Dam’s employees, visitors, and its national critical infrastructure.

The nine-week Security Response Force basic training program is conducted at the SRF Training Complex located in Grand Coulee, Washington. The basic training program is a singularly robust framework of curriculum for providing a baseline of foundational law enforcement skills. Candidates graduate this academy with more than a basic understanding of case law and the ability to handle firearms safely and effectively. They graduate with belief in themselves and their teammates. They are ready, willing and continue exploring ways to become not only a better officer, but a better neighbor and better Reclamation employee. The transition from contracted security services to the SRF has provided a greater degree of safety and security by ensuring federal regulations, such as the public conduct rule, are enforced on federal land.

The SRF team utilizes industry-proven tactics and experience to make certain that Glen Canyon Dam is a safe public place to visit while also maintaining round-the-clock protection of Reclamation properties.

from the
Provo Area Office

The ‘force’ is with Reclamation's Provo Area Office

By Ryan Proctor, Supervisory Civil Engineer, Field Engineering Division - Construction Services Group

The Bureau of Reclamation’s Construction Services Group or Force Account, which operates out of the Provo Area Office, engages in a variety of construction activities related to Reclamation’s mission as a manager of federal water projects. Force Account specializes in construction and heavy equipment operation for Reclamation projects and other federal and state agencies located in the seventeen Western states.

The Force Account term comes from workforce account. It’s a government wide term for crews that are directly employed by an agency to perform field work, rather than a contractor. Provo’s group began in the early 1990s as an extension of the Provo office materials lab and initially consisted of two-three heavy equipment operators who primarily performed test pit and trench excavation in support of geotechnical investigations. The crew and workload soon expanded to include environmental projects for the Utah Reclamation Mitigation Conservation Commission. This included the middle Provo River Restoration between Jordanelle and Deer Creek Dams, the Upper Provo River high mountain lake stabilization and Lower Duchesne Wetlands projects.

As the group’s technical capabilities increased, other Department of the Interior agencies and regions within Reclamation began to request construction services. Early projects were primarily wetland restoration projects with traditional construction features such as concrete water control structures, gates, and pipelines. Work included a multi-year effort to stabilize the Las Vegas Wash against erosion, construction at the Moapa Valley National Wildlife Refuge, and construction of backwater wetlands and a fish hatchery on the Ouray National Wildlife Refuge.

In 2005, the authorization of the Lower Colorado River Multi Species Conservation Program created the opportunity for the Force Account to work with the MSCP to create 8,100 acres of habitat for fish and wildlife along the lower Colorado River. To date, the Provo crew has installed thousands of feet of pipe, constructed dozens of concrete water control structures and excavated approximately 5 million cubic yards of material. Notable projects include Hart Mine Marsh, Laguna Division, Mohave Valley, and Planet Ranch Conservation Areas located along the Lower Colorado River in Arizona and California.

Around 2010, the Force Account began work for Reclamation’s Dam Safety Office as well as the U.S. Forest Service’s dam safety program. This work has included geotechnical investigations, toe drain replacement, filter installation, seismic berm construction, seepage remediation, outlet works installation, and concrete spillway construction. Completion of these projects have successfully lowered the dam safety risks and brought the facilities into compliance with federal dam safety guidelines for continued safe operation.

The Provo Force Account currently has about 20 employees, comprised of a civil engineer, civil engineering technicians, and engineering equipment operators. They continue to be an asset to the Provo Area Office and the whole of Reclamation.

Commissioner Burman's Message on New Logo

The Bureau of Reclamation is modernizing our visual identity, including the logo, as part of a proactive effort to better articulate the important work we do. The new visual identity and logo improves accessibility, is more suitable for digital communications, and can be more uniquely and directly associated with Reclamation.