Regular dam safety inspections and repairs could end up jeopardized by the significant staffing losses across the Bureau of Reclamation and other agencies, federal officials and outside advocates are warning.
One former Reclamation official said the departures of key staff — along with additional cuts forecast across the Interior Department in the coming weeks — could also trigger delays in major projects like the expansion of the B.F. Sisk Dam in California.
The Bureau of Reclamation has lost 25 percent of its staff, or about 1,400 people, in recent weeks as the Trump administration has sought to shrink federal agencies through a combination of its “deferred resignation program” and early retirement or voluntary separation payments.
Reclamation’s press office declined to confirm those figures, but a current staffer and a former senior bureau official, who were both granted anonymity because they fear retaliation, identified the figure based on internal communications.
