Critics warned of cuts in agencies overseeing American dams

Coulee Dam, Wash. , In federal agencies overseeing the US dams, the Trump administration has been threatening their ability to provide reliable electricity, providing reliable electricity to farmers and protecting communities by warning floods, employees and industry experts.

The Bureau of Reclament provides water and hydropower to the public in 17 western states. A administration official said that about 400 agency workers have been cut off through a plan for reduction in Trump.

“Reduction-in-Fores” memos have also been sent to current workers, and more pruning is expected. According to two fired employees interviewed by The Associated Press, Cuts included workers of the Grand Koli Dam, the largest hydro power generator in North America.

Lori Spragans, Executive Director of Kentucky-based Association of Dam Safety Officers, said, “These dam operators, engineers, hydrologists, geologists, researchers, emergency managers and other experts have a serious risk of increased risk for public safety and economic or environmental damage.”

White House spokesman Anna Kelly said that the decrease in the federal task force will ensure that disaster reactions are no less than bureaucracy and blot.

“A more efficient workforce means access to resources for all Americans,” he said by email.

But a bureau hydrologist said that they need people at work to ensure that dams are working properly.

“These are complex systems,” in the midwest, the worker said, who is still working, but spoke on the condition of anonymity not printing for fear of possible vengeance.

Workers protect the dams to monitor data, identify weaknesses and examine the site to examine the cracks and seepage.

“As we scramble to achieve these screenings, as we lose institutional knowledge from leaving people or losing institutional knowledge, we limit our ability to ensure public safety,” the worker said. “People available to respond to the operational emergency are important. Cutting of employees threatens our ability to do this effectively. ,

A federal judge on Thursday ordered the administration to expel the workers under probation, but a spokesperson of Trump said they would fight back, it is not clear whether someone would return.

The heads of 14 California Water and Power Agencies sent a letter to the Bureau of Reclament and the Interior Department last month, warning that an aging infrastructure can affect workers with “special knowledge” in operation and maintaining an aging infrastructure “can negatively affect our water distribution system and threaten public health and safety.

The US Army Corps of Engineers also operate dams across the country. Matt Rabe, a spokesperson, refused to say how many workers left through early purchases, but said the agency has not been asked to reduce its workforce.

But Pacific Northwest Waterways Association Executive Director Neil Maunu said that he learned more than 150 army corps workers in Portland, Oregon, stating that they would be abolished and they expect about 600 more in Pacific Northwest.

The firing includes “the district heads below the ships” and the safe river navigation included, he said.

His last day is not known. Maunu said that the core was asked to provide a plan to the US Office of Personnel Management by 14 March.

Many other federal agencies that help to ensure that dams have also faced trimmed and closed to run safely. The National Ocean and Atmospheric administration is taking 10% of its workforce and the National Dam Safety Review Board of the Federal Emergency Management Agency was dissolved in January.

The deduction comes at a time when the dams of the nation need to pay special attention.

Last year, an AP review of Army Corps data showed that at least 4,000 dams are in poor or unsatisfactory positions and can kill people or damage the environment if they fail. They require inspection, maintenance and emergency repair to avoid destruction, AP found.

In 2017, heavy rains at the Orovile Dam in California damaged spillway, forced to vacate around 190,000 residents, and Michigan’s Edenville Dam violated in storms in 2020, AP found.

Stephanie Duclos, a bureau of recitation probationary worker opened fire at the Grand Koli Dam, stating that she was initially one of a dozen workers. The dam across the Columbia River in the state of Central Washington generates electricity for millions of houses and supplies water to the 27 miles long (43 km) reservoir that irrigates the Columbia Basin Project.

“This is a big infrastructure,” he said. “It is going to take many people to run it.”

Some removed employees worked there for decades, but were in probation position due to the situation switch. Duclos was an assistant for the program managers who conducted training and had a contact with human resources. The only person to do that job, he is afraid of how others will cover the work.

He said, “You are going to burnout the employees”, left behind among the workers.

Sen Alex Padila, a California Democrat, who carried forward a bilateral attempt to authorize the National Dam Safety Program through 2028, said, “Security and efficacy of our dams is a national security priority.

“Americans deserve better, and I will work to ensure that this administration is held accountable to their careless tasks,” said Padila.

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Associated Press White House reporter Chris Megarian contributed to Washington, DC