John W. Morris
Soon general legislation was passed--Section 22, as I recall, of the Flood Control Act of
1974. One of the better projects was Indian Bend Wash, which maybe we'll talk about later.
It's in Scottsdale, Arizona.
So when you talk about projects in the public works area and even in the military arena in the
you really have to place them against the backdrop of the environmental and regulatory
programs in effect at that time.
The major programs that had been put into place by the Bureau of Reclamation, the Corps of
Engineers, and to some extent, the Department of the Agriculture, but primarily by the Corps
of Engineers in the years leading up to 1970, had resolved a high percentage of the major
objectives in developing American water resources. By 1975 only a few dams for hydropower
were under construction. Flood control was fairly well in place as was the transportation
system.
So a good question was, "What's left to do?" Especially in view of the environment and the
other constraints. Should the Corps change its basic orientation in the public works arenafrom
major construction, water resource development, to some other activity? To better answer that
question we analyzed each function for which the Corps had a major role-hydropower,
navigation, water transportation, flood control, water supply-to identify the need throughout
the country.
Congress authorized us to make two studies - the national hydropower study and the national
waterways study. The waterways study had begun while I was still director of Civil Works.
I also had hoped to have a similar study made on the national water supply system.
The standard in those days was that the beneficiary of a project should pay. For example,
water supply became a local responsibility as did local flood protection. As a result, the water
supply study was not undertaken at the federal level. The hydropower study involved both
high-head and low-head dams and small projects.
One year General McGinnis, as director of Civil Works, and I went to New Hampshire to
inspect a project. We drove by a mill on a small river and noticed that there was some kind
of small electrical facility there. We stopped by, and sure enough, the owner of this old fabric
mill had installed a small turbine on a low-head dam. It was making enough electricity to run
his plant. We both wondered how much more of this was going on around the country. Low-
head power was getting to be a subject of great discussion.
Earlier, the Corps had installed an inclined turbine at Webbers Falls on the Arkansas River
project. We felt that if we could get a horizontal turbine [run of the river] in the Mississippi
below Lock and Dam 27 we could generate considerable energy.
In spite of engineering problems, there was big interest in low-head dams. So the director of
Civil Works and I decided to have a conference on this subject in Washington in 1979 at the
Hilton Hotel on Connecticut Avenue. We were joined by the Energy Department, and we
expected to have about 300 people.
We got about 1,200 from all over the world. An unbelievable success. The Corps ran the next
one two years later. Then because of instructions from above, I'm not sure where, the Corps
was not allowed to plan that conference anymore, I'm sorry to say. Fortunately the
hydropower conference is still continuing under the auspices of the American Society of Civil
Engineers and remains quite successful.
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