Theodore M.
Corps was part of this fight-the Bureau did not have the political backing that
the Corps had because of its limited focus in the West, and so it fought the
Corps tooth and nail over projects like Chief Joseph and Lucky Peak and Hells
Canyon.
The Bureau and the Corps eventually got together on the Columbia River basin
and the Corps conceded Hells Canyon to the Bureau, but I think that may have
been because the Corps knew that the project wasn't going to be built because
of the pubic power ramifications of Hells Canyon, which eventually killed the
high dam.
Of course, the Corps also built more dams in California, though, beyond Pine
Flat.
Yes, so they did. In California, starting with Pine Flat, the battle between the
two agencies was intensified. Of course, the Californians egged them on,
because the more federal money they can get in there, the less state money
they'd have to put up to meet water demands. Eventually the state did have to
come through with its bond issue and build the California water project.
But the Californians knew what they were doing, and I have great respect for
the political abilities of people like Harvey Banks the way they played the
Bureau against the Corps. They knew what they were doing, and they pretty
much got as much as they could out of the federal government. Then when it
became too hard to get enough federal money, they went on their own-it was
originally their project, of course. But it has been costly, particularly when the
Bureau of Reclamation tied up all that water for years at a price of .50 an
acre foot, and then fought to
that low rate as new units were brought into
the project.
Saint Lawrence Seaway Authority
Ted, there are at least two or three major issues, water issues, in the
Eisenhower administration that I would like to get into in some detail. You
mentioned one of them already, the Saint Lawrence Seaway. It seems to me
you were in a kind of interesting position in the Bureau of the Budget, vis-a-vis
the Saint Lawrence Seaway. You were the contact for both the Saint Lawrence
Seaway Development Corporation and the Corps of Engineers.
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