ORAL HISTORY INTERVIEWS JOHN B. BUDD Ë Ë Ë Ë Ë Ë STATUS OF INTERVIEWS: OPEN FOR RESEARCH Ë Ë Ë Ë Ë Ë Interviews Conducted and Edited by: Brit Allan Storey Senior Historian Bureau of Reclamation Ë Ë Ë Ë Ë Ë Interviews conducted–1994 Interview edited and published–2008 Oral History Program Bureau of Reclamation Denver, Colorado SUGGESTED CITATION: BUDD, JOHN B., ORAL HISTORY INTERVIEW. Transcript of tape-recorded Bureau of Reclamation Oral History Interviews conducted by Brit Allan Story, Senior Historian, Bureau of Reclamation, in 1994, in the regional offices of the Bureau of Reclamation in Sacramento, California. Edited by Brit Allan Storey. Transcription by Barbara Heginbottom Jardee. Repository for the record copy of the interview transcript is the National Archives and Records Administration in College Park, Maryland. Record copies of this transcript are printed on 20 lb., 100% cotton, archival quality paper. All other copies are printed on normal duplicating paper. i TABLE OF CONTENTS TABLE OF CONTENTS.............. i STATEMENTS OF DONATION . xxxiii INTRODUCTION .............. xxxvii ORAL HISTORY INTERVIEWS...... 1 Born in Casper, Wyoming........ 1 Father Worked for the Bureau of Reclamation.............. 1 Moved to Indianola, Nebraska in 1947 ........................ 1 Reclamation Housing in Indianola Was in Barracks on an Old Prisoner of War Camp for Germans..... 1 Attended Grammar School in Indianola ........................ 2 Moved to McCook, Nebraska, in 1952 ........................ 2 Graduated from McCook High School and Attended Doane College . 2 Moved to Chicago to Become an Insurance Adjustor......... 2 Worked for Atlas Tire, Battery, and Oral history of John B. Budd ii Accessory Which Supplied Standard Oil Companies' Stations ........................ 3 Owned and Operated a Service Station in Birmingham, Alabama .... 3 Father Died and He Moved to California to Help His Mother 3 Father and Mother Had Moved to Coalinga and Then Los Banos, California, for Reclamation . 4 In 1965 Took a Temporary Job with Reclamation in Los Banos on a Survey Crew.............. 4 Moved to the Region in Sacramento in 1967 .................... 4 His Father, Jess Boyer Budd, Began to Work for Reclamation in 1932 ........................ 4 Father Worked on Casper-Alcova Project, Wyoming ......... 5 Jess Budd Was a Civil Engineer Who Worked on Location and Preconstruction............ 5 Jess Budd Moved to Coalinga, California, as Field Engineer for Reaches 3, 4, and 5 of the San Luis Canal ............... 5 Bureau of Reclamation History Program iii 1964—Jess Budd Moved to Los Banos as Chief of Location/Preconstruction for the San Luis Canal............ 6 Father's Education and Early Life . 6 Jess Budd "got a great deal of satisfaction out of building stuff. ."...................... 8 Reclamation Was a Small Organization and Fairly Closely Knit .... 10 Living in the Reclamation Camp in Indianola, Nebraska....... 11 Education Level at the Reclamation Camp Was Higher than in the Town .................. 12 You Got to Know Your Neighbors' Problems Quickly......... 12 Community Garden at the Reclamation Camp at Indianola ........ 12 Feeling of Community at Indianola ....................... 13 Things Changed When Staff Moved to McCook................ 13 Office Relocated to McCook..... 15 Kansas River Project........... 16 Red Willow Dam .............. 17 Socializing in McCook......... 17 Oral history of John B. Budd iv Father's Work in Location and Preconstruction........... 19 Father's Specialty Was Canals and Laterals................. 21 Community Garden at Indianola . 21 Canning Food ................ 22 Using the Locker Plant in Indianola ....................... 23 Food Processing Was Often a Cooperative Affair ........ 23 Most Vacations Centered Around Visits to Family ............... 25 Visiting Denver............... 26 Worked for Reclamation in Coalinga, California, after His Junior Year ....................... 28 Worked on a Survey Crew on the San Luis Canal in Coalinga in 1961 ....................... 29 Father Moved to Los Banos as Location and Preconstruction Wound Down at Coalinga.............. 32 San Luis Canal ............... 33 Region Was Responsible for Political Activities with the State and the Design—Field Constructed the Project ................. 34 Bureau of Reclamation History Program v How the State and Reclamation Manage the San Luis Canal, a Jointly Owned Facility ........... 36 ". Reclamation calls it San Luis Canal, the state calls it the California Aqueduct . ." . 36 Reclamation Sometimes Has Trouble Paying its Share of O&M for the San Luis Canal........... 38 Reclamation's Share of Water in the San Luis Canal Is Roughly Ninety Percent Agricultural and Ten Percent M&I............. 38 Reclamation's Only Large M&I Customer off the San Luis Canal Is the Santa Clara Valley Water District................. 39 About Half of State Water in the San Luis Canal Goes to the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California ....... 39 About Half of the State Water Project Water in the San Luis Canal Goes to Kern County for Agricultural Use.................... 40 How Pumping from the Delta and San Luis Reservoir Supply Water to Oral history of John B. Budd vi Users................... 40 How Electricity Generated on the Central Valley Project Is Used on the Project .............. 41 Reclamation Delivers Power it Generates Directly to Pumping Plants Through a Transmission System Managed by the Western Area Power Administration . 41 Dos Amigos Pumping Plant ..... 42 ". we pay WAPA an operation and maintenance cost, but we do not pay them a capital cost for the generating facilities . ." .... 43 Working as an Insurance Claims Adjustor for Liberty Mutual in Chicago ................ 44 Worked for Atlas, a Licensing Agent for the Standard Oil Companies ....................... 45 Took on a Service Station in Birmingham, Alabama ..... 48 Moved to Los Banos and Took a Job on a Reclamation Survey Crew . 49 ". checking the grade behind the slope trimmer on the canal . ." ....................... 50 Bureau of Reclamation History Program vii ". after about six months of that, why, I got moved onto a structure crew . " .................... 50 Moved into the Reclamation Office in Los Banos............... 51 Programs Branch Did All the Reports ....................... 51 Ted Peyton Headed the Program Office and Was Very Detail Oriented ....................... 52 Los Banos Was a Large Construction Office at the Time ........ 54 ". it was a big project–total project approached half a billion dollars . ."..................... 54 John Bucholtz, Project Construction Engineer at Los Banos..... 55 Bucholtz Later Became Project Construction Engineer for the Tehachapi Crossing of the State Water Project............ 57 Moved to the Region in 1967 When the Los Banos Office Downsized ....................... 60 Applied for a Job as a Repayment Specialist in Sacramento . 60 "When I came to Sacramento, I never Oral history of John B. Budd viii spent more than two weeks in the second step of any grade, until I got my twelve. ." ....... 62 As a Repayment Specialist He Administered and Negotiated Contracts ............... 63 Worked on Developing Contracts with Diverters on the Sacramento River................... 63 The Alternative to Contracting on the Sacramento River Was Either Litigation or Adjudication of the River................... 67 1976 and 1977 Were Dry Years . 74 Riparian Water Diverters in California ....................... 75 Pre-1914 California Water Rights . 76 Reclamation's Water Right for the Central Valley Project Was Assigned in 1927 ......... 77 In 1970 He Was Assigned to Work on the San Luis Unit of the Central Valley Project............ 78 Subsidies and Repayment on the Central Valley Project ..... 79 Excess Lands Issue on the Central Valley Project............ 81 Bureau of Reclamation History Program ix "There were a number of congressmen and senators who made their living beating up on Reclamation . ."..................... 82 Congressman George Miller and the Central Valley Project ..... 82 Trusts and the Reclamation Reform Act ....................... 86 Senator Gaylord Nelson and Acreage Limitation in the Central Valley Project ................. 88 Hearing Regarding the First Westlands Contract ................ 88 Ralph Brody, Manager of the Westlands District................. 89 The Vietnam War meant "We were getting eight to ten million dollars for distribution system construction, when we needed twenty to thirty for an optimum construction schedule . ." . 89 "NEPA was enacted in '69, and nobody envisioned the impact that that was going to have. ." .... 90 ". in hindsight I think Brody made a significant mistake by not signing the contract when he had the Oral history of John B. Budd x opportunity . ." .......... 91 ". one of the conditions that the Senate imposed . was that Westlands agreed to merge with a neighboring district called the West Plains Water Storage District. ."............. 92 Westlands Offered to Provide the Money for Construction If Reclamation Could Guarantee it Would Be Paid Back ...... 94 Establishment of the San Luis Task Force................... 95 ". there's still about 40,000 acres in Westlands and the West Plains area that do not have distribution system facilities. ." ...... 96 ". landowners . constructed pumping plants and pipelines . temporary facilities . around twenty years old . ."...... 96 During the Carter Administration There Were Westlands Issues with Reclamation Staff in Washington ......................