Prokopovich, Nikola P.

Biography

Nikola P. Prokopovich (1918-1999) was a California-based geologist for the United States Bureau of Reclamation. He was born in Kiev, Ukraine and came to the United States in 1950. He earned his doctorate in Geological Sciences in Germany, where he lived for a time before emigrating. After his arrival in the United States with his wife, Sylvia, Prokopovich worked a series of odd jobs followed by more meaningful work at the University of Minnesota, and later with the US Geological Survey. Eventually, he made his home in Sacramento, where he worked as a geologist with the Bureau of Reclamation's Mid-Pacific Region. He worked out of the Sacramento office from 1958-1986, investigating the geology and geochemistry of California statewide water projects, including the Central Valley Project and the Solano Project. Due to Prokopovich's extensive work on these projects and his investigations into the effects of irrigation on land in the Sacramento and San Joaquin valleys, he became a respected authority on land subsidence in water development projects.

Prokopovich was a frequent presenter at professional meetings and a prolific writer. Among his works are the articles Irrigation History of the West-Central San Joaquin Valley-San Joaquin Valley Drainage Program (1989) and The Cost of Subsidence to the Central Valley Project, California (1983), as well as an unfinished book on land subsidence. Prokopovich's articles were published in a wide range of professional journals, including the Bulletin of the American Association of Petroleum Geologists, the Journal of Sedimentary Petrology, the Bulletin of the Geological Society of America, the Journal of the American Water Works Association, and the Bulletin of the Association of American Engineering Geologists . Nikola Prokopovich lived in the Sacramento area until his death in 1999.

Sources:

Unpublished oral history from Bureau of Reclamation Historical Office, Denver, Colorado. Interview conducted by George Petershagen, USBR Historian, 1994.

From the guide to the Nikola P. Prokopovich Papers, 1947-1994, (University of California, Davis. General Library. Dept. of Special Collections.)