Federal staffing shortages are delaying efforts to expand water capacity at Anderson Ranch east of Boise.
Chris Keith with the Bureau of Reclamation told Idaho water officials they’ve lost the technical design leader, supporting staff, along with workers handling contracts.
“This is a top regional priority, not only for our offices here locally, regionally, but across all the offices and the commissioner’s office," Keith said Thursday during a state water resource board meeting.
In an email after the meeting, a Bureau of Reclamation spokesperson wrote the agency doesn’t comment on personnel matters. They also deflected a direct question about whether this was related to the Trump administration’s federal layoffs.
Instead, the spokesperson said the agency is “collaborating closely with the Office of Personnel Management to embrace new opportunities for optimization and innovation.”
Jeff Raybould, chairman for the Idaho Water Resource Board, said he was disappointed by the news.
"We keep seeming to lose some rungs on this ladder we're climbing and I understand you have your limitations given staffing, but we need to carry on and push this as hard as we can," Raybould said at the end of the presentation.
Officials hoped to wrap up the project’s design phase this fall, but that deadline moved to next spring. Construction is anticipated into 2031.
Federal officials first authorized studying the project nearly 10 years ago. Ultimately, it will raise Anderson Ranch Dam by six feet, adding about 29,000 acre-feet of water storage, or 9.4 billion gallons.
That water primarily flows into the Boise River and is used by those in the Treasure Valley for domestic, commercial and industrial purposes. The project's original study estimated the valley's population to grow to nearly 1.6 million people, and with them, an increased demand on water even larger than what this will accomplish.
