SWD hosts the Corps' Planning Center of Expertise for Water Management and Reallocation Studies. The PCX provides technical support and peer review for studies related to water supply and other conservation purposes in multipurpose reservoirs. Brad Hudgens serves as the Technical Director of the Corps' Planning Center for Expertise. In this spotlight, Hudgens discusses his role with the PCX and explains what the Corps role with our Nation's water supply is and why it's so important.
Q: Tell me about your job?
I'm the Technical Director of the Corps' Planning Center of Expertise (PCX) for Water Management and Reallocation Studies. What does that mean? Recognizing that SWD has the most experience with water supply in the Corps, we were named the Corps CX for water supply planning back in 2003. Since water supply is mainly a responsibility of state and local governments, HQ came up with a more complicated title for us, but it does highlight how the Corps mainly participates in water supply today - through our management of our multipurpose reservoir projects and reallocation of storage space behind the dams for water supply. As a program manager I try to steer project delivery teams working on water supply issues to the right resources here in SWD and around the country that can best help them.
Q: What type of projects do you work on?
There is a PCX for each of the Civil Works mission areas in the Corps. We all have eight roles that we perform in our mission area: provide technical services to districts around the country, manage peer review of studies and decision documents, certify and approve planning models, conduct training and support professional and technical development, support HQ in developing policy and performing policy compliance reviews, develop standard processes and procedures to support execution, assist in identifying priorities for research and development, and share lessons learned. Through our PCX, experts in SWD have helped support some of the most complex and controversial water supply studies around the Corps, including the Chatfield Dam Reallocation Study that will provide a critical new source of water for the Denver metropolitan area and the Missouri River Reallocation Study where our six Corps dams on the river hold 39 million acre-feet of water across four states.
Q: Why is the PCX so important to the Corps?
Fortunately for them, unfortunately for us, a lot of our water supply experts around the Corps are retiring, and we can't always replace them. I'm working hard to capture their knowledge before they leave and use it to update and improve our written guidance. I'd like for the PCX to be the first stop for districts who have water supply issues, where they can find good guidance and tap into other resources around the country to help them be successful.
Q: What is the future of the PCX?
Like everyone, we're very constrained on staffing and funding. We have one permanent employee (me) and a budget of about $30,000 per year. Our other team members have to be funded by the district that's requesting assistance from the PCX. I feel that SWD made the commitment to serve as this center of expertise for the rest of the Corps, and to be successful, we need district supervisors to support their employees in getting the necessary technical and professional development to serve as experts in water supply, and in spending time working on projects outside of their district and SWD.
Water is such an important mission for the Corps, but there seems to be public confusion over what the Corps role in water management is and how much control we have, tell me what the Corps role in water management is and how we work with other organizations to carry out our water mission?
Water management in the U.S. is a complicated mix of state, tribal and federal rights and laws. And, as we know here in the Southwest, put all of that in the middle of a drought and things can really get interesting! Because it is so complicated, it can be hard to communicate effectively with the public. We always need to keep in mind what Congress wanted us to do when they told us to dam a river. Usually they wanted us to regulate the high and low flows to provide protection from floods and better navigation. Over time they've asked us to do more things, including storing water for municipal and industrial water supply, generating hydropower, improving water quality and aquatic habitat and providing recreational opportunities for the public. That's a lot to juggle, and we can't always make everyone happy. But the more we plan and coordinate with our partner agencies and stakeholders and communicate what we're doing and why, the more trust we'll have when water gets scarce and we do have to make hard decisions about how we operate our dams.
Q: Is there anything else you'd like to add?
I wish I could recognize by name all of the virtual team members out there in SWD who support our PCX. They often squeeze this work in with their regular district jobs, but are always committed to helping those other districts they support to make their schedules and deliverables. Thank you!
Release no. 14-001