Engineer Memoirs
While I was there, the Great Lakes Basin Commission, in particular, became very
active. They were trying to complete a basin plan.
Fred Rouse was the head of this basin commission. He was a Republican who had been
put forward by Governor [William G.] Milliken of Michigan and had been appointed.
George Greibenow was the chairman of the Upper Mississippi River Basin Commission.
The Corps was by far the best organized of the federal agencies to address the kind of
problems that these basin commissions were addressing. The basin commissions
consisted of representatives from the states, plus representatives of the federal agencies.
There was a mixed attitude towards these. Some division engineers felt that these basin
commissions were a total waste of time. It is perfectly true that much of the planning
they did didn't get converted into work. Other division engineers--I'd put myself in the
latter category--felt that the way the government was evolving, the Corps had to have
strong working relations with all these other agencies.
EPA [Environmental Protection Agency] had an important role, the Fish and Wildlife
Service, and so forth. The basin commissions were a good way to interact with these
people.
You didn't solve the problems on a particular project in these basin commissions. But
you had a framework in which the role of each of these agencies was evident. At these
meetings, you could interact with these people and then talk over problems you had
between you and agree to get together in the subsequent weeks to solve the specifics.
I felt they were a plus. I probably spent more time on all these interagency things while
I was division engineer than I spent on the command of the division.
Q:
So you really did think they were very important?
A:
Yes. Another set of the activities that demanded a tremendous amount of my time came
under the International Joint Commission [IJC] which was formed under the Boundary
Waters Treaty of 1909 between Canada and the United States. I was the chairman of
the American section of five different boards or committees under the IJC. There was
one for the regulation of Lake Superior. There was one for a study of Great Lakes'
levels. There was one for what to do about the American Falls at Niagara because they
were crumbling down. There was one for the regulation of the water at the outfall of
Lake Erie. And there was one for the regulation of the water at the outfall of Lake
Ontario.
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