President Donald Trump has tapped longtime water supervisor Ted Cooke to be the following commissioner of the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation. The nomination, submitted Monday to the Senate Committee on Power and Pure Assets, makes an attempt to fill a pivotal position on the prime federal company for Western rivers, reservoirs and dams.
If confirmed, Cooke will grow to be the principle federal official overseeing Colorado River issues. His nomination comes at a tense time for the river. The seven states that use its water seem deadlocked in closed-door negotiations about sharing the shrinking water provide sooner or later.
Cooke will seemingly attempt to push these state negotiators towards settlement about who ought to really feel the ache of water cutbacks and when. If they’ll’t attain a deal forward of a 2026 deadline, the federal authorities can step in and make these choices itself.
Cooke has spent most of his prolonged profession with the Central Arizona Mission, which brings Colorado River water to the Phoenix space. He joined the company in 2003, in response to his LinkedIn web page. He climbed the ranks and served as CAP’s normal supervisor from 2015 to 2023.
Water consultants throughout the Colorado River basin, together with some who’ve labored with him previously, advised KUNC they regard Cooke as a certified technical skilled. Sharon Megdal, whose tenure on CAP’s board of administrators overlapped with Cooke’s time as normal supervisor, mentioned she had “great admiration” for Cooke.
“He’s thorough, he’s deliberative, he looks for solutions, and boy, we need to find solutions right now,” mentioned Megdal, who now directs the Water Assets Analysis Heart on the College of Arizona. “My observation of seeing him in action in tough situations shows that he’ll keep working until a resolution is reached or a solution is achieved, and I think that’s what we need now.”
John Entsminger, Nevada’s prime water negotiator, referred to as Cooke’s appointment a “great choice,” and cited his work in shaping the 2019 Drought Contingency Plan. If confirmed, Cooke will seemingly be in the identical negotiating rooms as Entsminger.
“There are times when (the Bureau of Reclamation Commissioner) has to level pretty realistic threats at everybody,” Entsminger mentioned. There’s additionally instances after they need to be the mediator… I believe Ted has each of these expertise. I’ve seen him be fairly pointed, and I’ve seen him drive compromise.”
A plus for decrease basin states
The seven states engaged on the following algorithm for managing the Colorado River are at present cut up into two caucuses — the Higher Basin states of Colorado, Wyoming, Utah and New Mexico and the Decrease Basin states of California, Arizona and Nevada.
The appointment of Cooke, a longtime Arizonan, might upset some on the opposite aspect of that divide. The Central Arizona Mission, his former employer, is usually among the many first entities to lose water underneath any plan for cutbacks.
Eric Kuhn is the previous normal supervisor of the Colorado River District. The taxpayer-funded company was based to maintain water flowing to the cities and farms of Western Colorado. He mentioned Cooke is certified, however added “the nomination of someone from Arizona is interesting at a time when the Lower Division and the Upper Division states are far off.”
“I assume that he would recuse himself from decisions that could affect the CAP – which is just about any decision in the basin,” Kuhn wrote to KUNC. “None the less, his nomination is a plus for Arizona and the Lower Division States.”
Negotiators from Colorado and New Mexico declined to remark, and negotiators from Wyoming and Utah didn’t get again to KUNC in time for publication. Chuck Cullom, govt director of the Higher Colorado River Fee and a former colleague of Cooke’s, additionally declined to remark.
This story is a part of ongoing protection of the Colorado River produced by KUNC and supported by the Walton Household Basis.
