BOR manager changing jobs

Pablo Arroyave will now be the assistant regional director for technical services

By DD BIXBY, Herald and News 8/3/08

The Bureau of Reclamation’s Klamath Basin area manager has been named the BOR’s new assistant regional director for technical services.

Pablo Arroyave will leave Klamath Falls this month and begin his new position in Sacramento Aug. 31. Current BOR deputy area manager, Christine Karas, will serve as interim manager until a permanent replacement is named.

As the regional director, Arroyave will oversee management projects in the northern two-thirds of California, most of Western Nevada and Southern Oregon.

Arroyave wrote in an e-mail to the Herald and News that his new position would still involve him in issues related to the Klamath Project, specifically endangered species consultation and the proposed Klamath Basin Restoration Agreement.

Technical supervision

In the new position, Arroyave will supervise technical offices and programs, lead special studies and investigations, serve on policy-setting committees and represent the regional director at meetings, conferences and public appearances.

Arroyave moved to the Klamath Basin in 2006 to manage the Klamath Project that serves 240,000 acres of farmland.

One of the challenges Arroyave said he faced was trying to increase water certainty while maintaining and improving the project “as it was designed a hundred years ago.”

Biological opinion

Early in 2008, the Klamath Basin Area Office received its first nonjeopardy federal biological opinion on Upper Klamath Lake for endangered suckers. The first biological opinions were issued in the 1980s and had previously considered project operations to jeopardize sucker existence in the lake.

Arroyave counts the non-jeopardy biological opinion as one of the most rewarding experiences during his time as area manager, as did watching the Chiloquin Dam removal stay on schedule.

Arroyave has worked for the federal government for 15 years and came to the Klamath Basin from Carson City, Nev., where he was the deputy area manager for the Lahontan Basin Area Office.

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