Interior
will honor the memory of former Reclamation Commissioner John W. Keys III at a
key feature of Grand Coulee Dam in Washington
state. At Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne’s direction, the department is
renaming the 312-megawatt-power and water-pumping plant at the dam the
"John W. Keys, III Pump-Generating Plant." Keys died on May 30, 2008,
at age 66 in the crash of a small plane he was piloting in Canyonlands National Park. "John Keys was a dedicated
and honorable Interior Department employee who, in his 34 years of public
service, left the West and the Nation an enduring legacy, Kempthorne said. "This is one small way that we can honor
the legacy and important life-long work of Commissioner John Keys." Keys capped his federal career
in Boise, Idaho,
serving as regional director of the Bureau of Reclamation’s Pacific Northwest
Region from June 1980 to June 1998. Following a brief retirement, he returned
to federal service at the request of former Interior Secretary Gale Norton. President George W. Bush appointed, and the
U.S. Senate confirmed, Keys as commissioner in 2001. He served in that position
until his departure from Reclamation in 2006. "John Keys took great pride
in his leadership role in Reclamation," Acting Commissioner Bill McDonald
said. "John was the most enthusiastic voice for the vital mission of our
agency - producing water and power for the West. The renaming of this plant in
his honor is a perfect tribute to that dual mission that he was so proud to
support." Customers and stakeholders of
the Columbia Basin Project and staff from the U.S. House and Senate committees
with jurisdiction over Reclamation have expressed support for this proposal to
rename a major facility in the Pacific Northwest
as a tribute to Keys, McDonald said. The pump-generating plant at
Grand Coulee Dam, which Reclamation completed in the early 1980s, contains 12
pumps that lift water up the hillside. It serves as the source of water for the
Columbia Basin Project, irrigating 670,000 acres in central Washington. Six of the pumps are reversible
and are capable of generating a total of 312 megawatts of electricity. Grand
Coulee Dam itself was completed in 1942 and provides water for irrigation,
recreation, fish and wildlife, hydroelectric power production, and flood
control. For
more information on Grand Coulee Dam: http://www.usbr.gov/pn/grandcoulee/ Previous
article on Commissioner Keys: http://peoplelandandwater.gov/bor/bor_06-03-08_former-reclamation-commissioner.cfm
Contents
Bureau News
More About Interior