OPENING REMARKS BY COMMISSIONER STAMM at the SAN DIEGO PROGRAM CONFERENCE August 2, 1976 LA-DIeS ..;- GeNT E 1'; It is a pleasure to welcome you to the 29th Annual /leI-1c-r- 1/cJI "d lJiU'Y1<!.t f fJn?r~I'~ W#llt..s, w lJyl $~~ Commiss ioner' s Conference. -1 Over the years, this a~nua1 .. teo t ,k4=r I:.~J/t!!!-d ~ p-e ~cn(.1j 4,elft';;; b u,T es.s~~/(.~ h e,;:'.;:'e -¢z i/" lM.CM.A·":l~4vJq has b'&9P H8r;: ft 1 f f:el t:e 0 t:-~a:!t,eftleJR--S;;t a..tii-, 8!ltilr I Feole 0 f2 1ft? la,~-;{. ) "'Ufulh'- !;c ....J ~ <!rea ~al.'1e-tlleI :we<e-~ree, ~R.k}:::a.· f>~r(ydu:e~~~ . Ph;- ~ /ZP"~~;.7'...+t.u . __ __... t 'C' .." .-'O'"~-I"~- ':. -;r~14(- U(.~"~7-W e_ This year, we me unprecedented circumstances. In J.r.,211/e;..c-.c. 3 1\ < t 1~~-:;:-;- addition to our usual problems of budget levels, program performance, 1 a/5~ and personnel ceilings, we must face up to the aftermath of the t? J' A If eCIt11 t11<P! f ,rlrt first failure of a dam in the Bureau's histor~ and i t s i mpact ~d t' on our 75-year r~l ta.isn of professional competence and engineering excellence. Oil-tv( The Teton failure is the subject of a number of investigations, If as most of you know. These include investigations by an independent panel of nationally known engineers appointed by the Secretary of Wtft.r, \ the Interior and the Governor of Idaho ; a Departmental Task Force and" inquiries by Committees and Subcommittees of the Congress. The Ryan subcommittee of the House Government Operations Committee is holding h earings this week. We can expect additional hearings after the official investigations have been completed and the findings are in. ::;.- ~~"J.'1A /' +..fe e ;L £ .u!.-;l O'/<.-<>--{/ ,/-}-o. ~~ 5 In addition to those official investigations, we have been under severe scrutiny from media representatives, many of whom in this post-Watergate period assume it is their responsibility to uncover and publish evidence of human error, or to second-guess decisions made at a different time, under different circumstances. I J . h 11 . .,eM We h ave cooperate d comp 1 ete 1 y Wlt a lnvestlgat~ groups-- including the news media. We have opened our files on Teton in Boise and in Denver to the official investigators and to the press, and ~ have given direct answers to the hundreds of questions which~ have been asked. We have not attempted to withhold anything from anybody-.... ,~ f :'; gDod"..-~s~fl'S": We have more at stake than anyone in determining t j)r~'IJI!) as quickly as possible tne cause of the failure. Jj: , ~ A1: 8ft"'~~~_=- 1 ,I """P:8: ' " , the cause must be determined/ so that not only ~1 :::,:::::. engineering organizations the world can benefit therefrom. It is possible of course that the final report on the failure of Teton Dam may indicate a human error in judgment, design, or construction. If so, we will make whatever modifications are produce assurance that such a failure will ~ ~ , , The failure of Teton has raised numerous questions about ,, ) , I /1 ,t \. ~ re)f.Y1~~' , '~/c-::~ e ~/-t"d.r,/"I I!,;~p,.<-drt:~ ~-<··..tJ:.tt/'t(../.t." r VtlY I. ~ k., 1.." ~ ~'JC..- other - ams. Tr ditiona1 opponents of water development h ve "tte ~r:la ( ; • .j I't!~,. d "ttrJ.t.,?,» 2 seized on Teton as an excuse for stopping all dams underway, of60 all future dams, not only Reclamation's butAthose being constructed by others. Those who oppose all water development projects have been given a new weapon with which to becloud the issues, confuse the public, lobby the Congress, petition the courts. New litigation and congressional confrontations are likely--and delays in funding and construction are possible.if pet pF?Q8~lQ. Some elements of be led to believe that ~~l:O,.wj i the risks involved in outweigh the 'UtAute./-tJ-tA...-S 1:',;< ~ J-e/h>/IAC'e. J -~ ~ j)rcdtt£etd . benefits they ssp F Tjde--have been ~" lTiQiR~ for many years~ ~ ~~e ,Le~ # ' '« .f (//~~ ~ Jt'~~e-l ~."" • b L ... bep~ ctUc.Qd I / - ~ ~ .. f l ;/ '" Prior to this conference I asked our regional public affairs "\j"'A.i A. ' -~~/'ef_tt:- people to meet and discuss such problems and to come up with ~ ~ some positive suggestions. Results of their discussions will be available shortly. ~4 The many positive actions taken by Reclamation since the /\ failure of Teton have earned the respect and gratitude of many of the victims of the disaster as well as their representatives in the Congress. I would like to congratulate . Rod Vissia and ,/lA/t l fk AII.! ,... - - t.vtrr all of those who have been working wi him--sometime literally ;-eJI tY frcJ . fA. /).//7 i9' a Ilr:''''L night and day--on the rel3AAi J itatien of ~t , j !hu t44*l facilitie ~ and in preparation for the processing of claims. On June 6, 3 " .J,':'- dIVers';'>' ~ s~ f~~ (t"1 ~ " distribution facilities of 65 canal €Ji'geRi.aatwi9ft'S which served some 400,000 acres of crops not damaged by the flood were out of or !tl(l~/'I 1-0 be£ VU4 ~ 0 as ~ ~t. "'fAA,~ ~~. commissionA On J~ne 7, we had our first contractors at work "J- /tJl--tJ{et:.- ft (A. J :s' ~ repairing those facilities. By the end of June, 95 ~eFQQRt A -e",~ oJ that acreage was;; t;eQ7~ <~&£ . Today all of the lan~where I I'tPj.J II> c /~ /I~!!IH~~M~ ~ f,'~ y~ - ..$ r-~c~ ~tJ \ " crop damage was ..., ext "u~ -1;&:tzQrap 28311'1: ..t&s, irrigation -"L<vl!!1,""'o". , ~ve moved rapidly on handling claims as well. The day after the President signed the appropriation bill putting us in the claims business we began handing out claim forms. More than 5,000 packets have been distributed, more than 700 claims have -/I/ ~ ~/a /141.$ been 88i pbsJ and more than 100 ., investigations have been completed . The first emergency claim, received on July 14, was paid on ~~ Now let's get on with the usual business of this QgRf@E~"""" Th:: r.~ ~ 1977 program is the largest in the Bureau's history, and to continue at an orderly pace)~ 1978 budget will need to be even larger. While these larger dollar budgets are gratifying to those of us who have lived through the lean years, we find that increased 14UIM~~" dollars have not made the problems go away. We still faceAdecisions _ ~ ~_ ~~ ~!f :;aIt ~/ elU (J I In?''C ~ ~ <- ia/ ~f - 10;:7' in light of the uncertainty of current economic conditions,)A Infla- Ie; (~ ~/'. l it r!er/ ;--en /4;< s. tion affects our estimates. Personnel ceilings §gQEHCF "ien l4:mi~tj IIrs=JJLt I I! riiJ hamper economy and efficiency. r~~~ ~~ J...:.A: ud1 ~~ ~~;In " _. _ --- ~ ~ 4~~ ~~$:72. I want to run through a number of areas beginning with our performance for the past fiscal year and moving on to an examination of our present and future program. It is distressing to~ainlreporsfthat the Bureau had a poor performance year in construction. Fifteen percent of our fiscal year 1976 funds were unspent as of ~~iMtr.tii I J tL-~) '71 We must make improved program accomplishment a major item of concern in t~ -- f iscal year. This matter should be brought to the attention of all of our employees. We simply must be more realistic in esti~a . ting the time it takes to complete ~ he various ?~~ ~J ,re.;-1I14 J ~(';-~ · ) ~ f~ -t-· jJJ.t 1A.u...c. "';') j functions such as environmenta statements, coordination with local A. A , A and Federal agencies, and repayment ~~~S~~~t;l~ effect of overly optimi ~ tic projectidrts ~ th~ activities has been ~ ~ a­ ~ major reason for poor program accomplishment. I need not say more about the importance of improving performance than to remind ~vl(1 , you that the Bureau's credibility with the Congress' at stake. Now turning to the budget for fiscal year 1977, we requested $746,791,000 appropriations, an increase of $105 million over ~fisca1 year 1976 request ~f $641,384,OO~ To this request Congress added $21,908,000. So we are looking at new appropriations of $768,699,000. 5 IttI Congress added six new investigations starts over the eleven we asked" for, so we have 17 new GI starts. In the Construction appropriations ~ e have four advance planning starts, five construc­ tion starts, and six new loan starts; all added by the Congress • ... I would like to discuss the 1978 budget. Earlier we submitted considerable data to the Department which ranged from a base program of about $870 million, with no new contracts, to a total capability of nearly $1.1 billion. We now have the Department's assignment of the budget allocation which totals $936 million. This week we will want to analyze the workload within this allocation t :JAM~tft-:L-~ • •• and appeal wherever the ~" would create sl.gnl.fl.cant problems. The breakdown of the Department's allocation was furnished to the budget people last week. There is one new ingredient to our budget work this year. The Office of Management and Budget has insisted that the construc­ tion schedule tota1s fior fiscal years 1979-1982/ must be within J ' the OMB established limitations for the 4 years beyond the budget. This means that when we work up the fiscal year 1978 programs, based on the allowances, the flagged actions for 1979-1982 will need to be adjusted so that the dollar totals fall within the 6 OMB limits.