Harvey Oren Banks

Who was Harvey Oren Banks?

Harvey Oren Banks was an American civil engineer who was appointed State Engineer of California in 1955 and the first Director of the California Department of Water Resources in 1956. Under his direction, DWR completed its first California Water Plan and initiated the first stage of planning of the California State Water Project. It was under his term as Director that the California Legislature adopted the Burns-Porter Act authorizing the construction of the SWP in 1959. In 1961 voters approved massive bonds to pay for the construction of the SWP. Banks left the public sector that same year to return to the private sector, where he worked as a consulting engineer until his death in 1996. Banks' papers are held at the Water Resources Collections and Archives, University of California, Riverside.