Salt Lake City — On Wednesday April 1st at 7:30 PM, former Commissioner of the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation Dan Beard will give a lecture at the Dumke Auditorium in the University of Utah Museum of Fine Arts based on his new book Deadbeat Dams: Why We Should Abolish the Bureau of Reclamation and Tear Down Glen Canyon Dam.
Drawing on a career of more than three decades of government service, Beard will discuss the urgent need to change western water policies. His goal is to inform and activate the public about failed federal water policies that lack common sense, are corrupted by special interests, and have wasted billions of dollars of taxpayers’ money. He will not only detail the faults of the present system of federally subsidized water management, but he will also recommend a visionary agenda for the future that can inspire a new generation of water reformers.
Regarding dam construction in America, Beard states bluntly in Deadbeat Dams, “The decision to build a dam isn’t a scientific decision or an economic one. It is, pure and simple, a political decision.”
Beard has been a forceful advocate for water policy reform for nearly four decades. His extensive experience in the government and private sectors include serving as Chief Administrative Officer of the U.S. House of Representatives, Commissioner of the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, Deputy Assistant Secretary of the U.S. Department of the Interior, and Staff Director of the U.S. House of Representatives, Committee on Natural Resources and the Subcommittee on Water and Power.
Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., President of the Waterkeeper Alliance, has called Deadbeat Dams, “a courageous book and much needed…. Dams kill rivers – Deadbeat Damsrestores rivers and our hope for a sustainable future.”
In addition to speaking at the University of Utah, Dan Beard will also be speaking at Utah State University at 4:00 PM on March 30th, and will hold a book reading and signing at Ken Sanders Rare Books on March 31st at 7:00 PM. Mr. Beard will be the featured guest at a fundraising dinner for Glen Canyon Institute, at the University of Utah Museum of Fine Arts Café at 6:00 on April 1st.
