Chief of Reclamation’s Research and Development Office speaks at DOI Museum

Written by: Stephen Major

Chief of Reclamation Research and Development, Levi Brekke, Speaks at DOI Museum Lecture SeriesLevi Brekke knows a thing or two about water science. As Chief of the Research and Development Office, Brekke oversees two programs: Science and Technology, and Desalination and Water Purification Research. Brekke provides strategic direction and facilitates collaborations between Reclamation's research personnel, resource managers, stakeholders, and the water management community at-large.

On December 13, 2018, Brekke stopped by the Department of the Interior Museum in Washington D.C. to give a presentation about what’s been happening at Reclamation’s Research and Development Office. Speaking for an hour, Brekke covered a wide array of scientific topics in a presentation entitled “Water and Power R&D in the Bureau of Reclamation”. The one constant throughout the presentation was the myriad ways that Reclamation is solving problems and making scientific strides in the world of water resources research.

“We’re working hard to address Reclamation’s technical needs” said Brekke, “Our team in Research and Development is dedicated to making the tasks we perform better, faster, cheaper, and safer.”

Brekke touched on the ways Reclamation is addressing technical challenges through research, prize competitions, and technology transfer partnerships with industry. One thing was clear, the team at Research and Development have found innovating and cost-effective methods to deal with the kinds of issues you might expect to find at Reclamation, as well as some problems you might not have thought about.

“We’re using electromagnetic profiling and satellite imagery to find weak points in urban canals and using drones to identify rockfall hazards,” said Brekke. “We are even exploring the idea of or using robots to more quickly and safely line Reclamation pipes with protective coatings.”

Brekke’s team is also working to make Reclamation data more transparent and more readily available to the public. Following a successful pilot program in which Reclamation made water data available to the public through an online portal (Reclamation Water Information System, available at https://water.usbr.gov), Reclamation will soon be expanding their online information portal to include more datatypes and improve the user interface to make accessing Reclamation data as simple and intuitive as possible.

Brekke also spoke about the different ways R&D has used prize competitions to come up with new ideas to solve the most intractable problems.

“The great thing about our Water Prize Competition Center is that people from a wide range of different fields participate, each bringing their own unique perspective” Said Brekke. “It’s amazing to see the out-of-the-box solutions competitors bring to the table.”

Whether it be new approaches to desalination, combatting the scourge of invasive quagga muscles, or predicting weather a month or two in advance; the Water Prize Competition Center has generated exciting results that will benefit both Reclamation and the public.

Finally, Brekke spoke about ways in which Reclamation’s R&D has partnered with private industry to identify pathways to commercialize and manufacture Reclamation inventions, such as a more durable, chlorine-resistant filtering membrane; or a flexible flux probe to detect electrical insulation problems in generators or motors.

As Brekke’s presentation made clear, there is a great deal of cutting edge research being done at Reclamation’s R&D Office. Anyone who would like to stay updated on the work being done by Brekke and his team should sign up to receive the R&D magazine, Knowledge Stream, by visiting https://www.usbr.gov/research/ks.html

Published on December 18, 2018