Franklin F. Snyder
getting different answers for the same hydrologic data. Much of the initial pressure
for standardizing frequency procedures came from non-federal sources. The
problem was first referred to the subcommittee in 1956. We bounced it back, but
over the years it came up several more times.
We hired some experts in the field of statistics, not in hydrology, but in the field of
statistics. When they realized what a small set of data we had, why they just said
there's no way you could come up with a good answer.
We were lucky if we had 50 years of data. Then when you start getting figures for
100-year floods, they can be pretty wild. So we made a lot of people unhappy, I
guess, but we insisted that you couldn't say that one procedure was better than
another because the data itself were inadequate. The various methods would give
essentially the same results for frequency of floods of the same duration as the
period of record. The difficulties arose when the data were extrapolated to longer
durations for various purposes. In the meantime, a subcommittee work group
prepared a study of the various flow frequency methods. In 1966, the subcommittee
received a rather specific assignment from the Council on the matter. Before I
retired from the Corps that year as chairman, I established the panel or working
group that was to achieve standardization.
Q ..
Was that what eventually led to the Water Resources Council issuing that what,
"Principles and Standards or something?
A
It could well be. I'm not sure just what the mechanics were for getting out the flood
frequency mandate. When something was agreed to by everybody, it was usually
up to each agency to pass the word on to their own field offices. But there might
well have been another action. The council could well have adopted the
subcommittee report and put their cover on it as a document.
Q ..
I think this was after the introduction of the NEPA, the National Environmental
Policy Act, wasn't it? Reuben Johnson was there. He'd been in the Corps of
Engineers.
A ..
Now, that's a familiar name. I'm trying to remember.
Q ..
He'd been out in the San Francisco District, and then the San Francisco Bay Model.
He was out in planning out there.
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