Bureau goes with the flow

WASHINGTON — When Utahn John Keys first joined the Bureau of Reclamation 40 years ago, it was building big dams everywhere from Glen Canyon to Flaming Gorge and the Central Utah Project to expand water supplies for a thirsty, growing West.

But those days are essentially over, he says now as commissioner, or chief, of the bureau.

"Realistically, the big projects are in," he says.

But demand for water in the West is still growing.

With no or few more dams expected — in part from high costs, complicated environmental laws and because most large rivers have now been dammed — Keys says his bureau aims to help meet demand mostly by bringing opponents in Western water wars to the negotiating table to find ways to stretch supplies.

Some tools to be used may be improving conservation, transferring or selling supplies from groups who no longer need them, de-salting of heretofore too-brackish-for-use water supplies and upgrading such facilities as leaky canals.

With a laugh and a hint of a southern drawl from when he grew up in Alabama, Keys even says he's a bit surprised that his decades of experience as an engineer may now be less important than his 29 years as a college football referee.

"That involved working with people, and that is what is important now," he said.

A desire to help Reclamation and to referee water wars drew Keys out of a three-year retirement that he was enjoying in Moab in 2001. He and his wife settled there after eight different moves during his 34 years with the bureau — which began in Utah in 1964, doing some studies for the Starvation Dam.

"I promised it would be our last move," he said about going to Moab. "My wife is a doctor and she had a large practice in Boise (built during his 12 years as a regional bureau director there) and wanted to move to a small town. When she started looking around, people in Moab needed a doctor — so we ended up in Moab."

Keys was enjoying life there — including flying his Cessna 182 (a painting of it hangs over his desk now) for Angel Flight and for county search and rescue. And he continued refereeing football for the Big Sky Conference. Then President Bush asked him to come to Washington to take over Reclamation.

"That is the only reason I would ever leave," he said. "My home, my airplane, my truck and my wife are all still there in Utah. I get back when I can."