Q ..
Nuclear Regulatory Commission?
A ..
Yes, and he developed probable maximum floods for them, because when they build
a plant, generally along a river or a lake, and they're just as concerned about the
probable maximum flood as anybody else. Now, I think he was a civil engineer to
begin with, but during the war he went into meteorology. He was trained as a
meteorologist, so he worked through the war as a meteorological officer. So to
answer your question, I would say there are probably more hydrologists other than
the ones that came through the engineering route, there's probably more of them
came from other sciences than did from meteorology, although certainly there's
probably a fair number of hydrologists that had meteorological training.
Q ..
I gather there is somewhat of a discussion about whether hydrology is a true
engineering science or is a skill.
A ..
Yes. Now, it's pretty well a dead issue. There's still, every so often somebody
wants to set up a project to demonstrate, I guess, that it's a science, but I think it's
pretty well accepted as such. At any rate, it's pretty well accepted now by all of the
organizations as a field of its own.
Now the people that write papers for the American Geophysical Union Section of
Hydrology used to discuss that problem. There were always people wanting to set
up projects to help make it more of a science, but I don't know what you have to do
to make it a science. That's a problem that never bothered me. I didn't care what
they called it, whether it was a science or not.
It does draw on many different fields. In other words, the groundwater, it involves
the soils people, it involves the rainfall, it involves the meteorologist. It involves
the sediment, which brings in the sediment people. It does involve so many fields,
I guess that's why it's difficult to call it a science by itself.
Q ..
Much more of an argument in the '40s and '50s then about exactly what it was?
A ..
Yes, I was not concerned about it, and I certainly didn't get involved in it. There
was always a discussion of it, but I don't know of any reason why there should have
any strong feelings about it one way or another. I don't see that it makes a whole
lot of difference except possibly in getting research money. There were discussions
of it, but I don't remember any severe difficulties involved in it one way or another.
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