Water Resources People and Issues
I sometimes felt that they were just voices crying in the wilderness, trying to
bring more cost sharing into the course of programs, and trying to bring more
conservative cost-benefit analysis and better economic analysis into the
program.
And Gene Weber was another one we dealt with on policy and he seemed to
have somewhat more, if you want to use the word, "clout" in the Corps. He
eventually became an assistant chief of Civil Works, I believe-one of the few
times that a civilian has reached that stage.
So I didn't have lots of contact with Dick Hertzler, but it struck me that there
wasn't any real power there, and I don't think he exercised much control over
the Corps. When we really wanted to get something done, we just had to go
through Joe Tofani.
Q: Okay, well, I think it's time to turn our attention to the Kerr Committee, unless
you had something else you wanted to cover.
A: No, I had first met Senator Kerr when the Bureau of the Budget had testified
before his subcommittee on A-47. I think there were several attempts in the
Senate during the mid-50s to liberalize federal water policies. I am thinking of
Senate Resolution 248, and Senate Resolution 281, but I can't remember which
Congresses. They were introduced or adopted in an effort to counteract A-47,
because A-47 was still on the books even though everybody had disavowed
responsibility for it. Because it was still on the books, the Bureau of the Budget
could use it in reviewing reports. So the Senate-this was the Public Works
Committee-was trying to impose its views, which were toward the
liberalization of policies with respect to recreation and the environment. At that
time they wanted nonreimbursable allocations of costs for such environmental
programs as providing water for dilution downstream from reservoirs. Dilution
Q: -pollution?
A: Yes, pollution. It was looked on as a way to get more projects. You provide
space in reservoirs for water quality storage, which could be drawn down to
dilute pollution. It was proposed as another nonreimbursable allocation that
could help to justify a project.
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