Bennett Raley, top U.S. water official, leaving post

By: SETH HETTENA - Associated Press | Thursday, December 2, 2004 9:46 PM PST ∞

Bennett Raley, the Bush administration's point man on Western water issues, announced he is leaving his Interior Department post. Raley, who is returning to his native Colorado to practice law and spend time with his family, will perhaps be best known for his role in wrangling rival water agencies into signing a landmark Colorado River accord last year.

"Bennett has been the linchpin of this administration's Western water policy, tackling some of the most contentious issues facing the region during a prolonged period of drought," Interior Secretary Gale Norton said in a statement Thursday.

Raley, 48, said he doesn't do "the legacy thing" and expressed gratitude for the chance to make what he termed a small contribution.

Norton promoted Tom Weimer, Raley's deputy, as an interim replacement.

As assistant interior secretary for water and science, Raley oversaw both the U.S. Geological Survey and the Bureau of Reclamation. Virtually unknown in the East, the Bureau of Reclamation runs more than 600 dams and reservoirs in 17 states that generate power, irrigate farmfields in the desert, and deliver water to 30 million people.

Raley helped lead the Water 2025 initiative, which highlighted areas where clashes over water were likely in the future. He also worked out an agreement with representatives of Arizona, Nevada and California to protect wildlife habitat on the Colorado River and aid native species.

But his biggest achievement involved last year's deal that ended years of bickering among California and six other states that rely on Colorado River water. The pact was designed to curb California overreliance on the river. More than 30 million acre-feet of water will move from farms to cities in Southern California over 75 years.

"I think Bennett stood out because of his passion for the river," said Pat Mulroy, general manager of the Southern Nevada Water Authority. "His most dominating trait is plain old doggedness. He's just like a pit bull: Once he digs in he doesn't let go. He's not afraid of anybody. He's not intimidated by anybody."

After California missed a Dec. 31, 2002 deadline to sign the deal, Raley and Norton took the unprecedented step of cutting the amount of water California could draw from the Colorado River. He later strong-armed a group of stubborn farmers in California's Imperial Valley by using the threat of taking their water as leverage for the deal.

David Hayes, a deputy interior secretary under President Clinton, said it said a great deal about Raley's approach that he forged ahead with a plan from a Democratic administration. "He didn't look at it as a political matter. He looked at it as a bipartisan, good plan," Hayes said.

In recent months, Raley has been sounding the alarm about the toll five dry years has taken on the Colorado River. Continued drought could lead to the first-ever cut in the river supplying 25 million people. Raley has been pushing the Western states to come up with a solution of their own making.

When he took office in 2001, environmentalists who battled him for years feared the worst from the cowboy-turned-lawyer with close ties to the property rights movement. Three years later, many conceded that Raley was not the ideologue they imagined but a straight-shooter willing to listen to all sides.

Earlier this year, Raley led a group of journalists and water officials on a 225-mile rafting trip through the Grand Canyon to discuss drought and other problems affecting the Colorado. Raley said almost every day in Washington he feels torn by the opposing forces of idealism and the need to compromise.

"Many days the agony is there, and I fear anyone in public policy who doesn't feel it," Raley said.

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