Enaineer Memoirs
retirement home didn't have to be on the water. That decision held also and established the
principle that a nonwater-essential building should be built someplace else.
After that meeting, the Corps did a much better job. I have to give General Gribble credit for
putting on the heat, and I give Manning Seltzer credit for figuring out what to do. Mother
Nature didn't seem too pleased, for as we finished our conference, a hurricane came in from
off the Gulf and we had to leave quickly.
So this was in
That was-no, I was still director. I'd say 1974, Gribble was the Chief. We should not
overlook the fact that General Clarke had initiated the Environment Advisory Board years
before, after NEPA was passed. The Environment Advisory Board idea showed superior
foresight. The members were strong advocates of environmental management and were not
necessarily friends of the Corps. The advisory board met with the Chief and the OCE staff.
The director of Civil Works managed this group. Many new and constructive ideas flowed
from these gatherings which worked well.
At the same time the members learned what the Corps was about. Some of the strongest
supporters of the Corps came from members of that Environmental Advisory Board who
began as untrusting, or at least skeptical, people.
The 404 program challenged everybody. The staff requirements were tremendous, as
regulatory sections appeared in every district. We got no additional people although we
complained to OMB.
Not only did the Corps and EPA have to prosecute the regulations, but we began to define the
Corps' and EPA's responsibilities. That's still going on, but in the earlier days, EPA and the
people took the broad position that EPA would establish the policy while the
would execute it.
Another aspect of this program which I doubt is well understood today was the effect of this
law on dredging. Dredging was a dirty word, a four-letter word. Dredging material was always
"spoil," it wasn't "material." It was assumed to be polluted before anybody could prove it was
or wasn't. General Frank Koisch, more than anyone else, perceived the complexity of this
problem and obtained congressional authorization and directed the Dredge Material Study by
the Waterways Experimental Station. It started about the time I arrived. Dredge disposal was
not just a United States problem. It became an international issue. The studies were able to
demonstrate that most dredged material was not polluted, and that which was polluted could
be managed.
In the meantime, we went into this tremendously expensive and somewhat unnecessary
program of diking off areas into which all the dredged material was placed and not allowed
to escape. It was either that or put it upland where it couldn't get back into the water. We even
considered such things as filling the strip mines out in Pennsylvania.
for the
We published a little book called
I think we did it in about a week.
We selected pictures of birds having a great time on property that was built out of dredge
material. Hart Mueller Island, a disposal site in the Chesapeake Bay, had been idled a few
years earlier while waiting for the next dredge operation. During that delay this island had
become a beautiful marshland full of birds. Then, when we wanted to go back and use it, we
were not allowed to do so because now, all of a sudden, it was a wildlife and bird sanctuary.
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