Colorado River near Blythe, Calif. Photo by Sally Aristei

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“He understands the Colorado River very well,” said Jeff Kightlinger, Metropolitan's general manager. “Bob's view is usually that if the states can reach agreement, he'll find a way to make it happen.”

A lot of issues within the Bureau's purview involve water management issues similar to those found on the Colorado River, Kightlinger said. “While he's not as familiar with the issues in other states, there are a lot of similar activities going on. My hope is to continue to make progress in those as well as on the Colorado River.”

The importance of the job cannot be overstated. The Bureau's dams, power plants and canals in 17 Western states led to homesteading and promoted the economic development of the West; its programs serve about 31 million people.
For Johnson, the road to the commissioner's chair began in Nevada, where he grew up on a farm near the town of Lovelock—a farm on a Reclamation project, although he didn't know it at the time.

“Growing up, I didn't know who the Bureau of Reclamation was, I just knew that the government built the dam nearby,” he said.

He attended the University of Nevada at Reno, where he received bachelor's and master's degrees in Agriculture and Resources Economics. He was planning to pursue a doctorate with an eye on a career in academia when he got a call from the Bureau. He'd taken the Civil Service test and was put in a pool of potential applicants—something he'd long forgotten. But within a month of that call, he was working for the Bureau in Sacramento, where he concentrated on the Central Valley Project and other regional projects, offering economic analysis and planning for potential new projects. He moved to Boulder City four years later, in time to be part of the Central Arizona Project as it was being built.

“It was an exciting place to be working,” he recalled. “The planning and work you did came to fruition in a very short time so you could see your plans put to [reality].”

In 1987, he moved to Washington, D.C. to be Chief of Contract and Repayment branch. A reorganization in 1988 culled Reclamation’s D.C. staff of about 300 to 70, with most people transferred to the Denver office. Johnson, however, moved back to Boulder City as chief of water and power, just as issues about water shortages on the Colorado River were popping up.

“There was a drought at the time and the CAP was coming on line and Arizona was going to use its entitlement and we began to realize that California was going to have to reduce its over-reliance on the Colorado River,” Johnson said.
In the years that followed—as the disparate parties along the Colorado River reached agreements that laid out how the entire West would receive a portion of the river’s bounty—Johnson continued rising in the ranks, to deputy regional director in 1991, then regional director in 1995.

Johnson said his background on the family farm helped him during his early years in the Bureau when he was considering irrigation projects and the economics of agriculture. “Growing up on a farm gives you perspective,” he said. “Quite frankly it’s hard to do the technical work without understanding farmers and farming.

“Irrigation was the first and primary focus of the Bureau. That’s broadened out over the years, but irrigation is still a big piece of what we do and [my background] helps me be more effective in dealing with them.”

The father of two grown children, a 30-year-old son, Gabe, a captain in the Air Force who recently served a term in Iraq and a daughter, Carly, 22, who is in pharmacy school. His wife, Mary, is a schoolteacher who retired when they moved to D.C.

He golfed with a regular foursome on Saturdays. “Golf is a real passion of his,” Rinne said. “My understanding from his golfing buddies is that he plays a really mean game of golf, but he downplays it.” Indeed, if you ask Johnson about his game, he claims he’s a poor golfer. “My handicap is 16; if I played a lot more often it might be a 15,” he quipped.
He’s not likely to have much time to golf in the coming months, considering the heavy agenda he has set for himself and the Bureau. Keys said he’s offered Johnson some pointers on the job, but feels that he’s well prepared for the challenges ahead. As for his own memories of the job, Keys said the job was harder than he’d expected it to be.

“People think politics have a lot to do with the difficulty of the job, and they do. But I think the water issues combine the resources, the people issues, and the politics because they are so important in the West,” he said. “The first thing he has to do is let the other parts of the West know who he is.”

Once he does that, they too, will find a leader willing to tackle tough issues and inspire people to creative decisions and cooperation, according to Roger Patterson, MWD Assistant General Manager/Strategic Water Initiatives.

“I have no doubt that Bob’s integrity and personal style will allow him to serve as an honest broker in finding solutions to some of the West’s most vexing water problems,” Patterson said.