reclamation office gets new manager klamath falls 110910

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Reclamation office gets new manager

Jason Phillips to take over job in January

by Ty Beaver, Herald and News 11/9/10

A new area manager will be heading the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation’s Klamath Basin office starting in January.

Jason Phillips, who has managed several water resource programs for the BOR in recent years, will be taking over administration of the agency’s local office from current manager Sue Fry. Phillips will be the fourth area director to oversee the office in less than five years.

“Jason Phillips’ past experience and demonstrated skills managing complex water management programs make him extremely well-suited to lead the Klamath Basin Area Office,” Donald Glaser, mid-Pacific regional director for the BOR, said in a press release.

Fry was recently appointed to lead the BORs new office in Sacramento that will focus on the San Francisco Bay/ Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta Estuary.

She came to the Basin in January 2009. She was preceded in Klamath Falls by Pablo Arroyave, who held the position from August 2006 to August 2008, and Dave Sabo, who held the office from 2002 to 2006.

The BOR’s Klamath Basin office is in charge of managing the Klamath Reclamation Project, which provides water to 240,000 acres of irrigated farmland in southern Klamath County in Oregon and northeastern Siskiyou County in California.

The Project also provides water to the Klamath Basin National Wildlife Refuge Complex. Leading current extensive restoration programs in the Basin is expected to be a key responsibility, the press release said.

Phillips, who has a civil engineering degree from Portland State University, has worked with the BOR since 2001 and managed programs such as the Upper San Joaquin River Basin Storage Investigation and San Luis Drainage Feature Re-evalution. He also previously worked for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in Portland and Sacramento.