Vernon
some of this theory that people have been giving us and wanting us to try out. Maybe we
can work it into a solution to the problem that you've got."
So they did, in essence, come up with a lot of ways of handling special problems simply
because they were this group that handled communication gaps. The districts really didn't
know how to apply some of those theories to the interesting problems that they might
have. The problem I had was trying to control districts who wanted to use HEC as just
another source of help. Just routine help. I said, "Well, we don't want to use the
resources of HEC for routine help." If you don't have something special to do, go out and
get a consultant to do it. Don't use HEC, go to some other district and use them.
Q ..
You didn't want to destroy their research program for that kind of thing.
A ..
You see they always have been pretty well constrained on how many people they can have.
They didn't want that place to get too big. Their numbers have been like about 30 full-
time people, 32, maybe 34 or something like that. But they never have been able to
expand it much beyond that. Headquarters just doesn't want to make it a real big outfit.
They could have some temporary help, but they just didn't want to make a massive
organization.
Q ..
From a hydrologist's point of view, has that been a good decision or a bad one? Would
you rather see it go larger and do more things?
A ..
Well, I think there is a danger in having to be too big. The danger is that pretty soon it
doesn't have enough work. So what it does is, it goes out and takes all these routine jobs
from the districts and the first thing you know in the districts, they've got problems and
constraints on help and so forth. If they know that they can get the work done at HEC,
then they'll eliminate the hydrology staff in their district and say, "Hey, we can get along
without them. HEC will do all our work for us." I think that's bad when it starts doing
that sort of thing.
Q ..
Because the districts really need to have their own hydrologists.
They need to have a hydrologist--they've got to have them. Especially if they are a district
A
that has reservoirs, because the people who really have the knowledge on how to operate
reservoirs are the hydrology people. They're the only people who really have the
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