John W. Morris
because the bus from the airport broke down. I had to walk the last mile or so to the hotel in
terribly cold weather.
Mike Cassidy, WRC executive director, presided over the meeting which voted to combine the
two into the Water Resources Congress.
The local organizations' effectiveness had begun to wane. The Arkansas Basin Development
Association, the Missouri Arkansas Basin Association, the Arkansas Basin Association, and
others, had all begun to weaken by 197 1.
One other event is worth mentioning. I said earlier that we'd had all the presidents out there
except President Nixon.
Yes.
A:
Kansas City District built Rathbum Dam in Centerville, Kansas. The local sponsoring group were
wonderful people with enough political influence to get President Nixon to the dedication.
Kansas City District under Colonel Andy Anderson worked with local support and put on a very
relaxed affair. I remember telling Andy to get President Nixon to wear a "The Corps Cares"
button while he was there. He responded that I should do it.
"No, it's your show, you're the district engineer, so you figure out how you're going to do it."
I told him I'd given President Johnson the treatment down in Eufaula years ago, and I thought it
was only right that he should take care of President Nixon. He gave President Nixon the button.
So a "The Corps Cares" button got at least as far as the White House. A lot of people at the
ceremony were wearing them. That was a nice affair. The picture of President Nixon went on the
wall with the rest of the presidents.
Q:
What about relations with EPA [Environmental Protection Agency] or with the regional offices?
A:
Oh, that is a good point. EPA was authorized in the National Environmental Policy Act but it took
time to implement. Mr. [William] Ruckelshaus was the first administrator of EPA. I went to
Kansas City to a meeting that he had called of all of his people. They invited affiliated groups to
witness a video setting out EPA's goals, et cetera. I was impressed with how well the video and
meeting were put together. That was the real beginning of EPA, to my knowledge.
Now, the man placed in charge of EPA's Kansas City region was a fellow named Jerry Svore.
Jerry was a public health officer from Texas, and he and I had worked together quite a bit when
I was in Tulsa and also on a few problems in the Missouri Basin.
Nationwide, a coolness existed from the start between the Corps and EPA. I think it was more
EPA than the Corps, although I don't want to get into that issue too much. The Corps offered its
help, yet there was some hesitancy on both sides early on. As you know, this conversion of the
Corps to support EPA's environmental program didn't happen overnight. It wasn't like turning
on a light switch or anything. So there were tensions.
Svore and I prepared and followed a memorandum of agreement on how we would operate. It
worked out fine in the Missouri River area. There were no problems between the Corps and EPA
in our area. We sent our plan back to Washington thinking it was good enough to become sort of
a national guide. I think it got through the Corps okay, but it never saw the light of day elsewhere.
It's been so long I don't recall the details, but basically it listed the areas where each of us had
our own responsibilities with no overlap, and then it listed the areas where we would probably
run up against each other and how we were going to go about handling them. It worked out very
well because of the plan and the personalities of the individuals in the MRD area.
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