Water Resources: Hydraulics and Hydrology
new techniques in hydrology. I said, "What are you talking about?" He says, "Well, your
Waterways Experiment Station invited us down to a big meeting on new technology in
hydrology. "I never heard anything about it. He says, "Well, everybody else knows
about it but you I guess.
Here part of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers doing research hadn't even contacted their
own experts to invite them to this exercise they were going through, that they had gotten
a bunch of money to do some battlefield type hydrology. They were looking for new ways
to do hydrology. But they hadn't even bothered to talk to us about even coming to their
meeting. It really irked the dickens out of me. When they would approach a subject like
that without using their own Corps expertise.
Well, you find other things like that happening within an organization that has a lot of
technical competence. I used to find occasionally a relocation group who were in the
process of relocating highways or something. They would do all their own hydrology, all
their own hydraulics. They would do their own bridges. They wouldn't even go to the
structures people to ask for help on bridges and things like that. They'd do all their own
stuff. Sometimes the things they were using were antiquated as hell, you know, that
people weren't even using anymore. But they wouldn't go down the hall and ask
somebody that knew what to do. They thought they had to do it all by themselves for
some reason.
Q ..
They didn't want anybody else in their business?
A ..
I don't know, protecting their little turf or something. But rather than getting a good solid
answer, they were willing to stumble along and do the best they could. It's terrible, in my
estimation, to see things like that happen.
Q ..
But that's bureaucracy at work, isn't it?
A
Oh yes, it sure is.
The
of Civil Works
Q ..
At it's worst as a matter of fact. How much did the Directorate of Civil Works change
during your years there. Personnel, of
changed.
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