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19'10 BUREAU OF RECLAMATION'S EVOLVING MISSION Reclamation's Unique Role in the West The Bureau of Reclamation is best known for the dams, reservoirs, powerplants, and canals it constructed to develop water resources and to open the West to homesteading. Since its inception in 1902, Reclamation has played a pivotal role in developing and managing water resources in the 17 western states. Water that was available to serve a population of 10 million people in 1902 must now serve a growing population. BOR projects now bring water to more than 30 million people and provide for the irrigation of 10 million acres ofland. Reclamation's 58 powerplants generate nearly one billion dollars in power revenues and produce enough electricity to serve six million homes. Reclamation continues to pursue its historic mission to manage, develop, and protect the water resources of the West for economic, social, and environmental purposes. But today, Reclamation's contemporary responsibilities have grown to include environmental restoration and . multi species conservation efforts; promoting efficient conjunctive and basinwide use of surface water and groundwater; increasing water supplies through reclamation and reuse; meeting the growing municipal, industrial, domestic, and agricultural demands; improving watershed yields; finding structural and nonstructural approaches for improving the efficiency and effectiveness of project operations; improving hydropower efficiency and capability; conserving available water and energy supplies; better use of science and technology in managing resources; furthering Native American and Tribal self-sufficiency; fostering fish and wildlife protection' endangered species recovery; recreation; minimizing imacts of extremes (floods and droughts); alternating the streamflow regime; and working with state and local entities to manage and administer allocations of the available resources. Reclamation -- refined, revised, and reinvented with its workforce trimmed by more than 20 percent and its budget reduced from approximately $1. I billion dollars down to about $850 million since 1990 -- is an integral part of the rich mosaic of interests, stakeholders, partnerships, and organizations involved in the major Western river systems. Reclamation's evolution has been recognized by Vice President Gore (5/94 Hammer Award) as well as the Ford Foundation and John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University (10/95, Innovations in American Government $100,000 award finalist).