Which Way for Reclamation?

After nearly two years, the Reagan Administration finally has filled a vacancy in a federal executive position that is of particular importance to the West: the commissioner of reclamation. President Reagan has nominated C. Dale Duvall, a Spokane, Wash., accountant, to the post vacated by Robert Broadbent in December, 1983, when Broadbent was promoted to be an assistant secretary of Interior. In the interim, one acting commissioner retired and another was brought in from a regional post.

Duvall’s special talents for this position are not yet clear. In the past the job usually went to an engineer, usually from the Bureau of Reclamation’s dam-building ranks. Duvall was Western political director for the Reagan-Bush election committee in 1980, and since 1981 has been vice president and treasurer of Overseas Private Investment Corp., a government agency that promotes private-sector development in Third World countries.

Perhaps an accountant is what the bureau needs. Its dam-building heyday is over. In fact, the Carter Administration renamed the bureau the Water and Power Resources Service to reflect the change. The Reagan Administration resurrected the old name when it took office. The bureau is the holder of numerous water and power contracts that seem to defy normal business-accounting methods.

Duvall is the first reclamation commissioner who will face Senate confirmation proceedings--a requirement instituted by the Reclamation Reform Act of 1982. Duvall’s hearings will provide a welcome opportunity for the Administration to give some clear direction to its reclamation policies in its final two years.