New USBR area manager faces challenges — with fortitude

Jennifer McCloskey welcomes challenge. As the new manager for Reclamation's Yuma Area Office, she has certainly found it.
 
"There isn't a day I don't learn something new," she said during an interview Friday after having just returned from the annual Colorado River Water Users Association conference in Las Vegas. She had been promoted from acting area manager to area manager a short week before.
 
In the middle of her plate as area manager is a potential year-long pilot run of the 15-year-old Yuma Desalting plant that could start in the fall and operate at one-third capacity. In 2007, a smaller test demonstration was run to determine whether the long-mothballed plant could operate.
 
A follow-up and more extensive pilot run would help determine the plant's operating costs, performance and water recovery it will achieve - all information that will go into deciding whether to run the plant on a permanent basis to create a new water source in the thirsty Southwest, McCloskey said.
 
But it involves more than flipping a switch. Permits have to be obtained to return the treated water to the Colorado River even though it will be close to potable water quality. Funding must be obtained through a collaboration of stakeholders. Environmental concerns must be dealt with and Mexico kept informed as the project will reduce agricultural runoff now flowing to the Cienega de Santa Clara wetland.
 
While the potential pilot run is her main focus for now, it's far from the only thing on McCloskey's mind. There's also the construction of the Drop 2 water storage reservoir 30 miles west of Yuma. Once completed, the reservoir is expected to conserve 70,000 acre-feet of Colorado River water a year, critical to the Southwest with its ongoing drought.
 
"And we still have a river to manage," she said. "Well fields to pump, water deliveries to make, infrastructure to maintain."
 
Not bad for someone who didn't know much about water until four years ago.
 
Since being hired as the deputy area manager in 2005, McCloskey has had a crash course in water and water management. "I'm a fast learner," she said. "Jim (Cherry, recently retired area manager) taught me a lot. I can now hold my own."
 
What she brought to the position was an extensive background in both the private and public sectors, having most recently worked for the Department of Treasury in Washington, D.C., and 10 years before that with private technology and business service companies in Texas and Florida.
 
In the process, she's gained leadership skills that are now invaluable as the area manager of a multimillion-dollar government agency that deals with numerous and diverse stakeholders.
 
"I know how to run a business," McCloskey said. "I could bring that business sense to government, where there's concerns about efficiency, strategic planning and results."
 
She also has a background in project management. "The big push in government is to bring projects in on time and within budget," she said. "I'm not an engineer, but I am a collaborator. I bring a lot of energy and I'm able to reach out with all kinds of skills to work with groups."
 
McCloskey already has put those skills to work as the deputy area manger. She was instrumental in completing environmental and funding requirements for the $172 million Drop 2 reservoir project, a feat she will need to repeat for the desalting plant pilot run.
 
She led the development of a long-range strategic plan for the office resulting in a clearer idea of where to focus resources. She's also worked on transparency of the entire water delivery process so everyone understands how one water user's decision affects others. A third effort has been to operate the agency more efficiently through new technology.
 
At one time, McCloskey said, her passion was international travel and work she gained while living for a year in Mexico as a girl. That was followed by a year of study in Spain and then career responsibilities that kept her heading to airports.
 
Now she would as soon be home more as the mother of two young children - a major reason for her seeking the deputy area manager position in Yuma.


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Joyce Lobeck can be reached at jlobeck@yumasun.com or 539-6853