More on Shutdown plus Land Management Agencies Issues - A message from the Chief Hydrologist Date: Fri, 17 Nov 1995 17:18:29 GMT To: "A - Division Chief and Staff", "B - Branch Chiefs and Offices", "DC - All District Chiefs" From: "Robert M Hirsch, Chief Hydrologist, Reston, VA" (Robert M. Hirsch) Subject: Two items Cc: "Bruce K Gilbert, DACH/Operations, Reston, VA" , "Robert R Mason Jr., Hydrologist(Engr), Reston, VA" , "Ernest F Hubbard, Assistant Chief, OSW, Reston, VA" , "Gail E Kalen, Computer Specialist, Reston, VA" I know that many of you are concerned about why we cannot continue to work on projects that are already funded (OFA work on no-year money, last year's money, user fee money, or an agency that has its FY96 appropriation, plus unmatched Coop). The policy under which we are working originates at least at the DOI solicitor's office (if not higher). The gist of the policy is this. We can only do work for these other agencies if there is complete separability of the people, space, facilities, and finances involved in doing the work. For example, the OFA project involves a hydrologist and technician on a full time basis, but it also requires the support of many others (funded through the common services budget of the District) this includes admin clerks to pay the bills, computer people, and supervisors such as the Studies Section Chief. The Department does not want to begin a process of allowing this large number of people who support these activities to come back to work and put in the few hours that are necessary to support the funded work. They do not want to start having people that are "excepted" on a fractional basis. I did not make up this policy nor did the Director. At the moment I don't see us taking it on. I hope it will be a moot point by early next week and we will be back in business. Let me change the subject to something that is unrelated to the shutdown. Gordie Eaton met yesterday with Secretary Babbitt and Ron Pulliam (Director of NBS). Secretary Babbitt spent a great deal of time talking about the perceptions among the land management agencies (LMAs) that USGS and NBS are not responsive or helpful to them and that in our case the only basis on which we will do anything for them is on a reimbursable basis and that our costs are way too high. Gordie understands these issues well and was able to make many of the right arguments in this discussion. As a consequence of the discussion it became clear to him that we need to be developing the evidence that we do a great deal for the LMAs from our appropriated funds. Here is what I would like to ask you to do over the next few days: Develop a list of things we have recently done or are now doing for these agencies (for now our definition of "these agencies" is any DOI bureau except for NBS or BOM plus the Forest Service -- I'm calling them "land management" agencies but I would clearly include the Bureau of Reclamation in the group) based on appropriated funds (including work in the Coop program that has a payoff to the land management agency). This should include gages, observation wells, water quality monitoring locations that are of direct use to the LMA. This should include sites where we share a part of the cost of the station with the LMA. Special attention should be given to stations in NAWQA, the Benchmark Network, and NASQAN. Interpretive studies or research that we fund under programs including: Toxics (e.g. Upper Arkansas), Irrigation Drainage, NAWQA, Global Change Hydrology (Loch Vale, Gunnison, Truckee-Carson-American Rivers), Core Research (Flood Frequency in the Rocky Mountains), RASA (Edwards Aquifer), Ecosystems (South Florida), Acid Rain (NTN and studies of effects on monuments), volcano hazard and geothermal (Mt. St. Helens, Corwin Springs). We also need to show examples where we have used our own funds to supplement reimbursable funds -- i.e. we effectively have cost shared the work. Examples of this would include the Glen Canyon Environmental Studies and Colorado River Salinity Control. We will make efforts here to do some GIS analysis to find the amount of federal land covered in NAWQA study units or RASA project areas - you needn't bother with that. We would really like to have a stack of printed publications that have obvious importance to the LMAs (such that the title alone would give a feel for the relevance). This could include items that you know to be on sale or given out at National Parks, National Forests, or other tourist sites managed by the LMAs. Gather some of these up and give us a list of them - we may ask you to send them to us but don't do it now. I realize you don't have any staff to help you and I'm not going to suggest a deadline for responses. Rather, I'm going to ask you to jot down a few bullets for us to think about that will help us shape the request more formally when we get back in business. Resist the temptation to write a lengthy discussions of the issue or description of specific projects. Bullets will give us ideas to work with and we make come back for more information as we see how the excercise develops at the bureau level. Please send your responses both to me and to Jim Peters (JGPeters) -- this will be a nice gift for Jim when he comes back. That's all for now. Bruce Gilbert should continue to be our primary contact for policy guidance. If we are still shut down Monday I will be going to a Policy Council meeting Monday afternoon and again will try to carry your concerns forward. Hang in there and try to enjoy the weekend. Bob ********************************************************** * Robert M. Hirsch Phone: 703/648-5215 * * Chief Hydrologist Fax: 703/648-5002 * * 409 National Center Internet: rhirsch@usgs.gov * * U.S. Geological Survey * * Reston, VA 22092 * **********************************************************